Far-right football pundit-turned-politician Andre Ventura has taken his party to new heights in Portugal’s parliamentary elections, with surging support from voters meaning the populists will play a decisive role in the country’s political future.
The Chega leader, a former trainee priest who later became a tough-talking TV commentator, disrupted what has long been a two-horse race in the country, with the centre-right Social Democrats and centre-left Socialists alternating their hold on power for years.
The Social Democrat-led Democratic Alliance (AD) won only by a slim margin, and is now preparing to govern without an outright majority as Chega warned of instability if it is not included in government.
‘One thing is for sure tonight, the two-party system in Portugal is finished,’ Ventura declared on Sunday, adding that his party ‘stands ready to be part of a government’.
Chega became the third biggest party, quadrupling its parliamentary representation to 48 lawmakers in the 230-seat National Assembly, meaning the AD, which won just 79 seats, may only be able to pass laws with far-right support.
While Ventura is enjoying his party’s mounting support, Social Democrat leader Luis Montenegro, who is likely to become prime minister, vowed to keep his campaign promise not to negotiate with the populist party.
Chega’s controversial mix of policy promises include chemical castration for paedophiles, limiting newcomers’ access to welfare benefits, stricter controls over immigration, higher pensions and the elimination of the value added tax on essential food items.
Ventura indicated he would be willing to compromise on some of his more extreme policies if it means his party can get into government.
Far right political party Chega leader Andre Ventura reacts following results in the general election in Lisbon, Portugal, March 11
Ventura has changed his profession several times, becoming a law professor, a tax inspector and then a television football pundit
Ventura has also been pictured beaming alongside Geert Wilders, dubbed the ‘Dutch Donald Trump’
The 41-year-old first attracted the political spotlight in 2017 when – as a candidate for mayor in a town outside Lisbon with the mainstream centre-right PSD party – he blamed Portugal’s small Roma community for crime, and accused them of exploiting the social welfare system.
He quit the PSD the following year and in 2019 he founded Chega, which means ‘Enough’, vowing to fight against corruption and illegal immigration.
‘He analysed the market and became the product that many people want to buy,’ journalist Vitor Matos wrote in a recently published biography about Ventura.
‘Ambition shapes his ideas, he looks for a clear path to climb socially, in the media and, subsequently, politically,’ Matos added.
Ventura has embraced the support of Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro and has described Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister and the leader of the anti-immigrant League party, as a ‘good friend’.
He has also been pictured beaming alongside Geert Wilders, dubbed the ‘Dutch Donald Trump’, whose far-right party won elections in the Netherlands but has failed to form a majority in the months since.
Ventura, who is married without children, tied the knot with Dina Marques Nunes in 2016, and is regularly pictured with the physiotherapist at campaign rallies
Ventura is known for his diehard defence of Lisbon-based club Benfica, Portugal’s most decorated and supported club
He speaks of restoring respect and obedience to the police, and has protested on the streets with Movement Zero, a group of disgruntled police officers with suspected extremist ties who are demanding better pay and conditions.
‘In politics, you have to be different. And I wanted to be different,’ Ventura once said of himself, before adding that his path had been guided by a ‘divine mission’.
Born and raised in a working-class Lisbon suburb, Ventura became a fervent Catholic as a teenager and spent a year at a seminary studying to be a priest against the wishes of his parents. He says he quit because he fell in love.
Ventura became a fervent Catholic as a teenager and spent a year studying to be a priest against the wishes of his parents. He says he quit because he fell in love
Ventura regularly posts pictures working in his office with his pet cat
After completing his university studies in Ireland, he changed his profession several times, becoming a law professor, a tax inspector and then a television football pundit.
He is known for his diehard defence of Lisbon-based club Benfica, Portugal’s most decorated and supported club.
Ventura, who is married without children, tied the knot with Dina Marques Nunes in 2016, and is regularly pictured with the physiotherapist at campaign rallies.
‘It’s normal for André to want to have his wife by his side, with family being one of the most important flags of the party. She is one of the conservative Catholic components that André wants to reinforce’, a source from his party revealed to Portuguese media.
Democratic Alliance (AD) leader Luis Montenegro addresses supporters at the party’s electoral night headquarters, in Lisbon last night
Populist right wing Chega leader Andre Ventura casts his ballot at a polling station in Lisbon
He has attempted to be an author, publishing two novels that have raised eyebrows because of their homoeroticism and frequent depictions of female submission.
His second novel ‘The Last Dawn of Islam’, published in 2009, recreates the final months in the life of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who died in a Paris military hospital in 2004.
In the run-up to Sunday’s election, Ventura sought to soften his image by appearing on popular morning TV talk shows, cheerfully biking onto the set of one program while wearing a suit.
Under his leadership, Chega has grown rapidly.
It won 1.3 percent of the vote in a general election in 2019 the year it was founded, giving it a seat in parliament – the first time a far-right party had won representation in Portugal’s parliament since a coup in 1974 toppled a decades-long rightist dictatorship.
After Chega won 7.2 percent of the vote in the last general election in 2022, giving it 12 seats in Portugal’s 230-seat parliament, Ventura said the country had seen ‘the right completely reconfigured’.
The party captured 18 percent in Sunday’s election, giving it 48 seats in parliament and cementing its place in Portugal’s political landscape.
Ventura predicted that in the next election – whether it is in ‘six months or one or two years’ – his party will win.
