From Trainee Priest to TV Pundit: Europe’s New Far-Right Figure

Henrique Almeida
·4 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- When Portugal’s far-right Chega party won its first seat in parliament five years ago, a chorus of people, including some politicians, called for it to be banned.

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An online petition seeking to abolish the party, accusing it of spreading fascist ideology, collected more than 30,000 signatures. Founder Andre Ventura said some lawmakers refused to speak to him in the halls of parliament, and a Socialist Party member asked authorities to investigate Chega’s sources of financing.

“Thank God that these attempts did not succeed,” Ventura told a packed room of students at the Catholic University of Lisbon earlier this year. “We’re still here.”

Not just still here, but growing rapidly. Ventura’s party, just five years old, now has 48 seats in parliament. That’s four times as many as it won in the previous election in 2022.

Chega’s surge is part of a trend that’s been seen in countries across Europe, including the Netherlands, France and Germany. It comes just months before European elections, when populist groups are expected to make further gains.

Even though it hasn’t overtaken the Socialists or the center-right PSD, historically the dominant groups in parliament, Chega is now a formidable political presence. It’s also a force that may be hard to keep ignoring, particularly for Luis Montenegro, leader of the center-right AD alliance, which includes the PSD. He won the most seats in Sunday’s election but is short of an absolute majority.

Chega’s numbers would give Montenegro that majority, but he’s ruled out doing a deal. Ventura’s populist party is controversial, with a tough anti-immigration stance and support for chemical castration for some sex offenders. Montenegro has called Chega racist and xenophobic.

Whatever Montenegro’s view, Ventura’s message is getting through to voters frustrated with low wages and high taxes, and weary of the two main parties.

“It’s a vote of dissatisfaction with the system as a whole. It’s a vote that will reach people across the whole political spectrum,” said Ricardo Ferreira Reis, director of the Center for Applied Research and Public Polling at the Portuguese Catholic University. “He is a young and nonetheless experienced politician at a time when there is a generational transition of politicians taking place in Portugal.”

Ventura first appeared on the political scene as a candidate for the center-right Social Democratic Party in regional elections in Loures, in the outskirts of Lisbon.

During the campaign, he drew attention targeting the Roma community, claiming they almost exclusively lived on state subsidies and consider themselves above the law.

Ventura lost that election, but made a name for himself with incendiary comments on immigration policy and alleged government corruption. By 2019, he had enough supporters and disagreements with the PSD to form Chega, which means “Enough.”

Born in Algueirao, just outside Lisbon, Ventura initially wanted to be a priest, but left the seminary early. He studied law and then worked for the tax authorities and was a football commentator on television.

In 2020, he became involved in a controversy with Portuguese international footballer Ricardo Quaresma over comments about the Roma. Quaresma, who is himself part of the community, accused Ventura of “racist populism” that “only serves to turn men against men in the name of an ambition for power.”

Ventura’s tone in parliament is often confrontational, which he says is meant to channel the anger that Portuguese people feel about the system.

There have been a number of lightning rod issues, most notably a controversy over a severance payment to a board member of state airline TAP SA, which had received more than €2 billion of government aid. A Eurobarometer survey in 2023 found that 93% of Portuguese citizens consider corruption to be widespread.

“We have the worst government and the worst-ever prime minister,” Ventura said last year, words that echo how another populist, Donald Trump, describes rivals including President Joe Biden.

So with a focus on corruption, it was little surprise that Chega stood to gain when Prime Minister Antonio Costa resigned late last year amid a scandal over allegations of influence peddling. Police raids found 75,800 euros ($83,000) in cash hidden in the office of the premier’s chief of staff.

“There is a huge rot that is spreading throughout the country,” Ventura told supporters at a rally earlier this year. “Only we can do something about it.”

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