Lisbon councillor leaves Chega, will sit as independent

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.

Ana Simões Silva is a Lisbon city councillor who, according to reports on 19 January 2026, disaffiliated from the Chega party citing political incompatibilities. Her exit matters locally because shifts in party affiliation can change municipal council dynamics and influence decisions on city services that residents and businesses rely on.

Lisbon City Council (Câmara Municipal de Lisboa) is the municipal government that runs the capital’s services, urban planning, public spaces and local bylaws, led by an elected mayor and councilors. Because the council can set rules on alcohol consumption in public areas, the scheduled meeting on the 14th will decide any new limits intended to reduce nighttime noise and disturbances in the city.

ANA is the company that operates and manages most of Portugal’s major airports; its formal name is ANA — Aeroportos de Portugal (Airports of Portugal), and it is run under a long-term concession by VINCI Airports. ANA handles planning, infrastructure and regulatory steps — for example, it delivered the first environmental report in the licensing process for the proposed Luís de Camões Airport, a key procedural milestone for that project.