In Praça Afonso de Albuquerque, in front of the Belém Palace, two groups gathered on Tuesday, April 21, regarding Brazilian President Lula da Silva, with opposing views but no direct confrontations. On one side, supporters of the Chega party, led by André Ventura, protested against the Brazilian leader, while on the other, supporters of the local PT branch defended him as a champion of the vulnerable. The protest highlighted the political polarization surrounding Lula's visit to Portugal, with Chega supporters chanting slogans calling for his imprisonment, while PT supporters celebrated his social policies.
Belém divided between the “thief” and the “president of vulnerable people”
Tuesday, 21 April 2026RSS
Context & Explainers
Chega ("Enough") is a Portuguese far-right populist party founded in 2019 by André Ventura. It positions itself as an anti-establishment movement against what it calls a "rotten and corrupt system" of PS-PSD dominance. The party surged from 1.3% in 2019 to 22.8% in May 2025, becoming parliament's second-largest force with 60 seats. Chega's core platform emphasizes strict immigration control—ending automatic CPLP residency, deporting non-independent immigrants, implementing job-market quotas, and requiring five-year social security contributions before benefit access. It advocates radical constitutional reform, including reducing parliament to 100 members, abolishing the prime minister position for a presidential system, and dismantling public healthcare. Law-and-order policies include life imprisonment and chemical castration proposals.
The party is defined by inflammatory anti-Romani rhetoric, with Ventura convicted multiple times for discrimination. Chega maintains international alignments with European far-right figures including Marine Le Pen, Santiago Abascal, and Matteo Salvini. Mainstream Portuguese parties, including Prime Minister Luís Montenegro's government, have imposed a cordon sanitaire, refusing coalition with Chega despite its parliamentary strength.
