Far-right Chega party leader announces standing for president
The leader of Portugal’s far-right populist party Chega, André Ventura, announced on Tuesday that he would stand in the 2026 presidential elections. It is the second time Ventura has done so after standing in 2021 and coming in third place.
According to the news source Observador, Ventura said that there had to be a candidate who represented “the struggle against corruption and uncontrolled immigration”.
Last Friday, Ventura told the party’s National Council that he did not want to enter the race in Belém, but that he would be a candidate if the members wanted: “If they want and understand that I should go, I will be here. If they decide that I shouldn’t go, I’ll be here. And if they understand that someone else should go, I will be here.”
The Chega leader also assumed that the party cannot “escape” from presidential suffrage and that the objective should be to have a candidate who can compete in a hypothetical second round.
“What matters is the cause, but the cause needs strength. I think my neighbour on the second floor is a good candidate, but we should not give the Portuguese empty, meaningless and impactless candidates,” he said on Friday.
This will be the second time that André Ventura is standing for Belém, after, in 2021, he finished in third place, with 11.90% (496,773 votes), behind Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Ana Gomes. This time, Ventura is running for president in a stronger position: he is the first opposition leader to run for head of state, after making Chega the second party with the highest parliamentary representation with 22.76% and 1,437,881 votes.
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