.
ER Editor: A reminder that Andre Ventura’s relatively new Chega party represents the ‘far-right’ populist electorate. Portugal has historically been socialist for a very long time. That is changing. We also recommend this by European Conservative —
Socialist Seguro Wins Portuguese Presidency
Ventura’s support from voters, however, was still stronger than Chega’s prior general election share—22.76% in May 2025—which in turn surpassed both pre-election polls and the party’s previous results. The growing numbers for the national conservative party indicate that the political Right is still on the rise in Portugal, a country once seen as resistant to such trends.
See also this from EC regarding regional elections in neighbouring Aragon in Spain, also covered in The Guardian report below. Vox is the populist-right party. Aragon shares a full border with France —
Aragón Election Confirms Spain’s Rightward Drift
The center People’s Party (PP) emerged once again as the largest force, winning 26 seats, though two fewer than in the previous legislature. Vox was the night’s big winner, doubling its representation to 14 seats. The Socialist Party (PSOE) suffered a heavy blow, falling to 18 seats, its worst result in the region’s history. On the left, Unidas Podemos disappeared entirely from the regional parliament, while the regionalist Chunta Aragonesista (CHA) surprised many by doubling its presence to six seats.
Taken together, the right now holds a comfortable majority: 40 seats for PP and Vox, compared with 25 for the PSOE and the fragmented left. In vote share, the gap is equally telling—more than 52% for the right versus around 37% for the left.
*********
Portugal elects socialist as president but far-right rival takes record vote share
António José Seguro scores resounding win despite André Ventura’s populist Chega party securing 33.2% of votes
SAM JONES for THE GUARDIAN and Agencies
The moderate socialist António José Seguro won a resounding victory in the second round of Portugal’s presidential election on Sunday, triumphing over his far-right opponent, André Ventura, whose Chega party still managed to take a record share of the vote.
Seguro won 66.8% of votes to Ventura’s 33.2% in the election, which went ahead despite weeks of disruption caused by deadly storms. The vote to elect a successor to the outgoing president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, was marked by a cross-party push to head off the prospect of a Chega victory, with some senior rightwing figures throwing their weight behind the centre-left candidate to keep Ventura from entering the presidential palace.
“The response the Portuguese people gave today, their commitment to freedom, democracy, and the future of our country, leaves me naturally moved and proud of our nation,” said Seguro.
Ventura, a former football pundit, columnist, seminarian and novelist who founded Chega seven years ago, said the result showed that “the message from the Portuguese people is clear”, adding that Chega was now the main party on the right and would “soon be governing Portugal”. Earlier on Sunday, he had accused “the entire political system” of uniting against him.
The far-right, anti-establishment party had once again sought to make immigration a key issue in the campaign, setting up billboards across the country that read “This isn’t Bangladesh” and “Immigrants shouldn’t be allowed to live on welfare”.
Chega’s result far exceeds the 22.8% it won at last May’s general election – and the 31.2% that the governing, centre-right Democratic Alliance took to win that election and propel Luís Montenegro to office as prime minister.
…
The campaign for the second round of the election was overshadowed by two major storms that prompted the declaration of a state of calamity that has been extended to 15 February. Ventura had called for the vote to be delayed by a week, calling it “a matter of equality among all Portuguese”.
But the national electoral authority said the vote would go ahead as scheduled, saying: “A state of calamity, weather alerts or overall unfavourable situations are not in themselves a sufficient reason to postpone voting in a town or region.”
Nevertheless, the aftermath of Storm Leonardo led about 20 badly hit constituencies to postpone the vote by a week. The postponement affected about 37,000 registered voters – about 0.3% of the total – and is unlikely to influence the overall result.
…
The far right also put up a strong showing over the border in Spain, where Vox doubled its seat count to finish third in an election held in the north-eastern region of Aragón.
The incumbent, conservative People’s party (PP), which won the election despite losing two seats, will again need Vox’s support to govern the region. The Spanish Socialist Workers’ party of the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, finished second and lost five seats.
Sánchez, whose inner circle and party have been battered by a succession of corruption allegations, congratulated the PP candidate, Jorge Azcón, but insisted the socialists remained “the only progressive alternative”.
The PP’s leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said the result was proof of the prime minister’s waning support. “How many more collapses does Sánchez need before he understands that enough’s enough?” he said.
Santiago Abascal, the leader of Vox, said his party was prepared to work with the PP but only if it adopted a tougher line on immigration. Disagreements over the issue led Vox to abandon its coalitions with the PP in five regions in 2024.
“If the PP wants to change its policies, it can count on us,” said Abascal. “But if the PP wants to continue with the policies that led us to quit the regional governments, then it best look towards the socialist party.”
Associated Press contributed to this report
CONTINUE READING HERE
Featured image source: https://www.euractiv.com/news/centre-right-wins-in-spains-northern-aragon/
Featured image source: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/portugal-presidential-election-2026-poster-featuring-2714578811
************
••••
The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)
••••
Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.
••••
Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.
••••
Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Leave a Reply