28 Comments
User's avatar
Becca Williams's avatar

Chega, shaped in the vein of Trump, has become the second-largest party in Portugal.

Their presence is impossible to miss – massive, high-budget “vote for me” billboards loomed over nearly every roundabout, at least here in the Algarve where we live. It begs the question: Where is all that money coming from?

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Jenny Hofferbert's avatar

His signs were all over Setúbal, too. It’s disheartening to see the right wing ideals creeping in everywhere.

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BK Nomad's avatar

Yes, follow the money!! Elon Musk or Musk-aligned orgs within Portugal, oligarchs of all stripes, organized crime, crypto bros, neighboring EU far right kingpins, and China in the wings ready to sweep up the resulting fractured economy. Or an unfortunate mix of any of these, or other, unnamed forces.

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BettyK's avatar

Yep. Agreed! Porto here- the district where Chega usually garners the smallest part of their votes - still at 20%. Also disheartening that the environment/animal rights party PAN can’t get more deputies, but expected. Now Portugal is just like the rest of Westeen Europe - a minimum of 20% vote share for the far right.

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HF's avatar
May 19Edited

This is not surprising if you visit areas of Lisboa that are completely overrun with illegal immigrants who are culturally and religiously incompatible, or socialists who vandalize cars and houses because they hate private property ownership. These types of demographic pressures were bound to create a reaction.

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BettyK's avatar

May be you should look up what Karen and actually means and realize it applies to YOU 😀 the “hordes of illegal immigrants” you mean the ones AIMA now grants a visa within 20 days to bc there’s such a lack of construction and public service workers, or do yoy mean the Bangladeshi who bring you your Uber orders and don’t bother anyone other than racists like you and Chega voters who can’t analyze any facts?

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Portugal Decoded's avatar

Hi there, here at PORTUGAL DECODED, we believe in free speech and welcome all views and opinions, including those we may not agree with. But violence and insulting language is a red line. So, please avoid this kind of language, as it goes against the respectful and constructive dialogue we aim to foster in this space. All the best

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BettyK's avatar

Hello - fair enough, but please also address your comment to “HF” who replied to my general comment with an ad hominem insult. You have no more comments to fear from me. While I am very impressed with your biography and analysis, I have no use for fora with the likes of an HF.

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HF's avatar

Ok Karen, I commented on the reasons why Chega grew in popularity and you automatically assumed I was a Chega voter, that shows your childish level of logic and comprehension. Let me guess, you are a middle-aged American female from California or Oregon who comes to Portugal for the climate and affordability, sitting on your high horse exporting your entitlement, yet having zero understanding or resonance with the real social issues facing the average tuga in the country. How typical.

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BettyK's avatar

You guessed wrong

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BettyK's avatar

Your party still only got 23% of the vote and will be locked out of sensible government. Good

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HF's avatar

Ok Karen. The problem with leftoids like you is that you automatically assume someone is one classification or the other. You are not mentally able to process nuance, so please keep living in ignorance.

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BettyK's avatar

No nuance detected in your comments, sorry

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Comment deleted
May 19
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WJW's avatar

I would agree, except it was you who escalated with the personal slur in this instance, and HF has already owned their behaviour. I hope you can find the humility to do the same.

I wasn’t thinking of your contribution when I moved to parenthetical. More the notion that some opinions are better held than expressed, such as pejorative terms regarding ethnicity, skin tone, etc. And we are not obligated to tolerate those opinions, when expressed. Confronting abusive behaviour will always remain an important issue in my life.

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WJW's avatar

Identifying culture and/or religion as incompatible with a particular society is not racist. It may be prejudiced (sectarian), but on both counts any member of the human race could fit into those two categories. The fact that you are still using a false construct (races) whose intentional design was to divide, says more about who you are than anything HF has written. In response, you used violence instead of rational discourse and now that you have been called out for it, as it offends you conceit of who you are, you project and gaslight in defence. Consider your response, if you need to.

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User's avatar
Comment deleted
May 19
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Portugal Decoded's avatar

Hi there, here at PORTUGAL DECODED, we believe in free speech and welcome all views and opinions, including those we may not agree with. But violence and insulting language is a red line. So, please avoid this kind of language, as it goes against the respectful and constructive dialogue we aim to foster in this space. All the best

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shr00mbtx's avatar

Yeah sure, let's be respectful to fascists

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HF's avatar
May 19Edited

another virtue signalling leftoid who preaches tolerance but calls someone a "fascist" as soon as their opinion is different from yours, yawn

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