Chega (political party)


Chega is a Portuguese political party formed in 2019 by André Ventura. The party has been described as nationalist and populist. In the 2019 Portuguese legislative election it won one seat in Parliament of Portugal.
Its inclusion in the register of Portuguese political parties was accepted by the Constitutional Court on 9 April 2019. On 12 April 2019, it announced that the head of its list to the European Parliament is André Ventura. Chega was part of the Basta! coalition for the 2019 European Parliament election in Portugal.

Ideology

Chega considers itself a party with nationalist, conservative and personalist roots. It defends the promotion of an effective justice and the decrease of the State's intervention in economy. The party also presents itself as national conservative and social conservative.
The party wants a decrease of the tax incidence, considering the current tributary system to be "brutal and aggressive to the ones who work and build wealth", and that "takes away half of their salary". It also defends shrinking the bureaucracy, considering it to be one of the main reasons for the "Portuguese competitive economic backwardness".

Election results

National legislative elections

European elections

Controversies

Chega has been criticised for promoting to high ranking positions individuals with ties to organisations with neo-nazi and far-right ideals. Before this was investigated, the head of list, André Ventura, promised to have "zero tolerance" with militants connected with extremist or racist movements. Despite this, the party leader organised a march during the coronavirus outbreak, in 2020, which received huge backup and support from the portuguese neo-nazi Mário Machado.
Several members of the party also have admited to have belonged to neo-nazi groups.