Portugal, mired in political crisis over the past years, held its third parliamentary elections in three years on Sunday, 18 May. The vote, however, did not pave the way out of turmoil: the incumbent centre-right coalition, the Democratic Alliance (AD), led by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, finished in first place, securing 32.1 per cent of the vote (86–89 mandates), but fell short of the 116 seats required for a majority in the 230-member parliament—meaning another minority government will be formed in the coming weeks.
What is certain—and increasingly evident as a recurring pattern in the last three elections—is that the right-wing, anti-immigration party Chega, a member of the Patriots for Europe (PfE) political family co-founded by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán last June, continued its steady ascent. In the current vote, Chega tied for second place with the Socialist Party (PS), both securing 22.6 per cent with 99 per cent of the votes counted. Led by André Ventura, Chega achieved the greatest electoral success in its history, sending 58 MPs to the new parliament.
‘There are moments in life during which God says, just stop a little bit,’ Ventura told a crowd of supporters on Sunday. ‘This time I am not going to listen. I am not going to stop until I become the prime minister of Portugal.’ During the campaign, Ventura, 42, was hospitalized after collapsing on stage due to an oesophageal spasm. Chega gained eight seats since last year’s snap election, while PS lost 20. Ventura said his party had ‘swept the left block off the map in style.’
Founded in 2019, Chega is the fastest-rising party in the Portuguese political landscape. In its founding year, the party secured a single mandate in the parliamentary election—a number that grew to 12 in the 2022 vote. The real breakthrough came in last year’s snap election, when Chega managed to quadruple its support, winning 50 seats and 18.1 per cent of the vote.
Ventura is a key ally of Viktor Orbán in the European political arena, having visited Budapest in May 2023 for bilateral talks with the Hungarian Prime Minister. During their meeting, they discussed the importance of uniting conservative forces across Europe—an idea that materialized a year later under the banner of PfE. The two met again in February 2025 at the PfE ‘Make Europe Great Again’ summit in Madrid. In his speech at the event, Ventura criticized mainstream European leaders, asserting that their time was over and calling for a new era led by nationalist and conservative forces. He also emphasized the need to ‘reconquer a Europe that is ours and that belongs to us—a Christian Europe.’
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