Portugal electoral campaign begins with right looking to gain

LISBON

Portugal's official election campaign began yesterday, with the March 10 legislative vote likely to see a breakthrough by populist parties after an influence peddling scandal brought down eight years of Socialist government.

Portugal, which this April celebrates half a century since its "Carnation Revolution" put an end to an almost equally long fascist dictatorship, has avoided the right-wing and anti-establishment parties that have recently scored successes elsewhere in Europe.

That exception is expected to end.

The Chega party ("Enough" in Portuguese), formed in 2019 by a former football commentator who has become an ardent critic of the country's political and economic elites, is credited with 15 to 20 percent of the vote.

The surprise resignation of Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who is not running for reelection, has helped Chega, said Antonio Costa Pinto, a political scientist at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon.

"The theme of corruption, in this European conjuncture, favors the radical right," he said.

Several European countries, including Italy, Slovakia, Hungary and Finland, are run by coalitions either headed by or including far-right parties.

The Netherlands could join this list after the victory of Geert Wilders in last November's legislative elections.

Chega, which is anti-immigrant but not always anti-European Union, already became the country's third largest political force in Portugal's January 2022 elections with 7 percent of the vote and 12 deputies in the 230-seat parliament.

Andre Ventura, its president, aims to displace the center-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) as the dominant force on Portugal's right, which is expected to have a majority of the seats in parliament.