Official two weeks of campaigning ahead of Portugal’s early general election began on Sunday, according to AP News.
The country’s two moderate mainstream parties will reportedly once again win the most votes, but the expected rise of a populist party could give momentum to the rightward drift in Europe.
The centre-left Socialist Party and the centre-right Social Democratic Party have succeeded each other in power for decades, but it is unclear how much support they will need from smaller rival parties to win the parliamentary votes needed to form a government after the March 10 vote.
Corruption scandals have cast a shadow over the electoral process and fuelled public disillusionment with the country’s political class as Portugal prepares to mark 50 years of democracy since the Carnation Revolution.
The election comes after the Socialist government collapsed last November following a corruption investigation. In addition, in the final weeks of unofficial campaigning, a corruption investigation in Portugal’s Madeira islands led to the resignation of two prominent Social Democrat officials.
The housing crisis, persistent low wages and unreliable healthcare are other areas where the performance of the two main parties has been controversial. Topics like climate change, migration and religious differences are largely absent in Portugal.
A five-year-old populist and nationalist party called Chega! has made fighting corruption one of its political banners: “Portugal needs cleaning out,” one of its billboards declares.
The party’s leader, 41, lawyer André Ventura, is third in opinion polls and could become a kingmaker if his political influence increases. His party received just 1.3 percent of the vote in the 2019 election, but its share has risen to 7.3 percent in 2022.
Socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos, 46, his party’s prime ministerial candidate, is a lawmaker and former minister of housing and infrastructure. Santos left the previous government amid problems over his management of flagship carrier TAP Air Portugal.
Luís Montenegro, 51, Social Democrat leader running for prime minister, has been a lawmaker for more than 20 years. He heads the Democratic Alliance, an alliance with two small parties.
The question is whether the Social Democrats will need the votes of Chega! to form a parliamentary majority after eight years in opposition. The Socialist Party could, as in the past, form a parliamentary alliance with the Portuguese Communist Party or the Left Bloc to come to power.
