After choosing a parliament: right -wing populists in Portugal now in second place alone

The right -wing populists in Portugal are expanding their role and are now alone the greatest opposition force in parliament. Around a week and a half after the early parliamentary election, the CHEGA party receives two more mandates after counting the foreign votes and is now coming to a total of 60 seats in the Lisbon Asseman Assemble da República, as the national electoral authority announced.

So far, Chega (“it is enough”) and the Socialist Party (PS) had placed in second place with 58 MPs each. The PS could not improve by counting the foreign votes. The two remaining seats went to the conservative alliance of Democratic Alliance (AD) of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro.

The rise of right -wing populists is rapid in Portugal. After being founded six years ago, Chega initially only had one seat in parliament in parliament, which was occupied by party leader André Ventura. Soon the government will also be presented, the 42-year-old law professor called after the recent election on May 18.

Portugal before an uncertain future

The democratic alliance improved from 80 to 91 seats compared to the coordination from March 2024, but missed the absolute majority of at least 116 seats. Montenegro does not want to form a coalition with the PS or Chega. Nevertheless, head of state Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will soon appoint him to appoint him as head of government. The 52-year-old then has to present his government program to the vote for the parliament.

The third new parliamentary election since 2022 had become necessary because Montenegro had significantly lost a question of trust he himself in March. Since then, Portugal has only had a managing government with limited powers. Important projects are on ice. Including the privatization of the airline TAP, in which Lufthansa is also interested.