Portugal’s Far Right Surges In Biggest Election Since Dictatorship Ended 50 Years Ago

Portugal’s far right is set to take on its biggest role in governing the country since the fall of the fascist Estado Novo regime 50 years ago after quadrupling its bloc of lawmakers in the national Parliament.

The results of Sunday’s election are not yet final, but by Monday morning showed the hardline party Chega had won at least 48 of the parliament’s 230 seats, up from 12. The center-right Democratic Alliance — led by the Social Democrats with a couple of tiny conservative parties — secured 79 seats. The Socialists claimed 77.

Chega — Portuguese for “enough” — formed just five years ago as a right-wing faction of the traditional center-right Social Democrats split off under the leadership of Andre Ventura, a charismatic former sportscaster who gained notoriety by attacking gay rights and Portugal’s tiny Roma minority.

Its rise to power over the last few elections shocked many in a country that had seemed immune to the strain of bombastic populism animating the political right in France, the Netherlands and Germany, inoculated by such recent memories of authoritarian rule.

But Chega’s anti-establishment rhetoric found new purchase among Portuguese voters after the long-ruling Socialist Party government collapsed in November amid a corruption scandal involving alleged backroom deals for major green infrastructure projects.

Ahead of Sunday’s snap election, Chega papered the country’s traffic circles with billboards pitching Ventura as the man to “cleanse” Portugal’s political class, which the far-right blamed for everything from stagnant wages to high housing costs.

Luis Montenegro, leader of the Social Democratic Party, had previously ruled out a coalition with the far right. Without Chega, however, the