Anna Navarro-Pedro and José-Manuel Lamarque return today to the result of the last legislative elections in Portugal, on March 10, with the victory of the conservatives and the arrival of the populists, the nationalist party “Chega”, which received 18% of the votes.
franceinfo: The result of the legislative elections in Portugal, the right also passed, with the nationalists’ score 18%. Where are we heading for the formation of the government?
Anna Navarro-Pedro: The Socialist Party which was in power with the absolute majority lost so many seats in Parliament, that effectively, they consider themselves in the opposition even if the result of the votes is really “kifkif”, as we say in French, but it There are a few thousand votes that separate the socialists, the party of Prime Minister Antonio Costa, from the conservatives.
We are now awaiting the result of the counting of the votes of Portuguese people abroad, who still elected four deputies, to finally have the panorama. And then the negotiations will begin. But obviously, throughout this week, it’s trading very strongly. For now, the Socialist Party says: “We are in opposition, that’s clear and clear, even if we have just two deputies less.” At the same time, there is an idea that is on the table, which is that the Socialist Party, to block the way for the nationalists who have 18% and 48 deputies, could form a government with the right which has just won the elections.
However, this idea is rejected by the leader of the Socialist Party, Antonio Costa. The idea that the PS could form a government with its right-wing rivals, who won these elections, the conservatives, to block the way for the far-right parties… Well, there is an argument which is quite powerful, which is the following, if the two parties of the Portuguese bipartisanship unite in a government, if they fail in the eyes of the Portuguese, only one party remains to govern, the nationalists of Chega
And so it is for this reason that this idea of a government of national unity is failing. The other idea is that there is a left-wing opposition bloc in Parliament, to the new right-wing government, and obviously, the big unknown is: will the parliamentary right of the Democratic Alliance, the conservatives, will they form a government with the populist nationalists of the Chega party, or not?
The Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, is a conservative, so this victory of the conservatives will not displease him that the conservatives come to power…
It is even rumored in Portugal that he did everything so that his side could come to power before he left power, since he is in his second term. On the other hand, he publicly opposes the idea that his camp, his party, forms a government alliance with the far-right Chega party. However, the leader of this party, Mr. André Ventura, said that, when speaking privately with the President of the Republic, he had suggested to him that he would not be opposed to such an idea.
As for the populist Chega party, what does Chega mean in Portuguese?
Chega means “enough”…
As Portugal experienced 50 years of Salazar dictatorship, is Chega a party of Salazarist obedience or essence?
He is neither of obedience nor of Salazarist essence, but he plays with this idea. And there are plenty of Salazar supporters in his ranks. But it’s not just that, obviously, he played with that, for example, two years ago, for the legislative elections, well, the party’s motto was “God, Fatherland, Family and Work”, the first three, it was Salazar’s motto, as for Work, it is perhaps an addition from Pétain, who knows?
In any case, this nationalist party, 18% anyway, is a lot, and 48 deputies, especially in the southern regions of Portugal like the Algarve for example?
In the Algarve, the party came in first place, which is quite surprising. But he had deputies elected by each department of the country, except one, very Catholic and very conservative, in the north in Braganza.
If the populist nationalist Chega party ever entered the government, what consequences for Portuguese politics? We are also approaching the European elections, let’s not forget…
I think that the Chega party will send quite a few deputies to the European Parliament and Marine Le Pen in France is counting on it, and she has gone to Portugal several times to support André Ventura. The consequences are on the policy itself, of the government, since it is an ultraliberal party in terms of economy, even if for these elections, in a very opportunistic way as usual, Chega showed itself to be a rather social party , concerning the minimum wage and retirement pensions.
Do you have a date for the future Portuguese government?
The negotiations will begin after the counting of voters from abroad, so from March 21, so perhaps next week, we will start to have a first idea.