International media on Monday focused on the second-round contest in Portugal’s presidential election between surprise socialist candidate António José Seguro and far-right leader André Ventura, while highlighting the defeat of The post Foreign press focuses on Portugal’s socialist v far-right runoff appeared first on Portugal Resident.
Foreign press focuses on Portugal’s socialist v far-right runoff
Monday, 19 January 2026RSS
AI Summary AvailableInternational media highlights presidential election resultsRead the synthesized summary with context and explainers
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Other news coverage of this topic
- 'Surprise' Seguro, 'extraordinary' Chega and a 'hard blow' for Montenegro — elections viewed from abroad9:18am, 19 Jan 2026 • ECO
- Press review: The presidential elections seen abroad8:58am, 19 Jan 2026 • Dinheiro Vivo
- International media highlights presidential election results1:38am, 19 Jan 2026 • Observador
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.
