The President of Portugal's Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, refused to accept a request from the Chega party for an urgent parliamentary debate on fuel, food, and taxes, citing that the party had exhausted its scheduled parliamentary initiatives. Although the request was denied, Aguiar-Branco indicated that Chega could resubmit the proposal in the following fortnight, adhering to procedural time limits. The request was initially announced by Chega's leader, André Ventura, who aimed to address rising living costs and government measures related to energy and taxation. The party's formal request was based on a procedural error, but Aguiar-Branco considered it a minor oversight, emphasizing that parliamentary rights are subject to temporal limits to ensure balanced access to legislative initiatives.
Aguiar-Branco recusa admitir pedido do Chega para debate de urgência sobre combustíveis
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.
