Trial of Chega MP for alleged defamation of Left Bloc (BE) coordinator begins this Monday

Monday, 12 January 2026RSS
Trial of Chega MP for alleged defamation of Left Bloc (BE) coordinator begins this Monday

In 2021, MP Pedro Frazão published a video of a young woman who reported non-consensual sexual acts by a member of the Left Bloc, implying it was José Manuel Pureza, who was then vice-president of the Assembly of the Republic and is now the party's coordinator.

Context & Explainers

The Left Bloc (BE) political party
  • Leader: Currently vacant (Mariana Mortágua resigned October 2025)
  • Ideology: Democratic socialism, left-wing populism

The Left Bloc achieved its worst result in history in 2025, dropping from 5 seats to just 1. Mariana Mortágua, who led the party from May 2023, resigned in October 2025 after failing to reverse the party's electoral decline. Founded in 1999 as a coalition of far-left parties, BE was once the third-largest force in Portuguese politics and a key partner in the 2015-2019 Geringonça government.

Chega

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.

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