Despite a Recent Election Loss, Portugal’s Far Right Is Gaining Ground

Though André Ventura, the head of Portugal’s far-right Chega party, lost the country’s presidential election on Feb. 8, the electoral defeat was nevertheless a strategic victory for his populist ambitions.

Ventura was projected to lose no matter whom he faced in the runoff, which he was widely expected to reach. But he wanted to use the heightened political coverage surrounding the campaign to shape the national policy agenda, center media discussions around Chega’s positions and put himself in the limelight as a way to expand the party’s base.

In the end, this is what happened. António José Seguro, the soft-spoken center-left candidate from the Socialist Party, or PS, won the presidency, securing 67 percent of the second-round votes to Ventura’s 33 percent. But once again, Ventura succeeded in raising his own profile, while giving Chega a claim to being the country’s second-strongest political force.