The Portuguese centre-right party (S&D) and the Liberal party (Renew) were the winners of Sunday's European elections in Portugal, which, unlike most other EU countries, saw the defeat of the far-right Chega party (ID).
Good to hear that. Now, why are the Portuguese able to defeat far-right parties and the other European countries are not? What’s different in Portugal?
In my experience it’s pretty hard to get the politics of a different country without a significative time investment, and I say this as somebody who has moved into a couple of countries and eventually started getting the politics there even though I was actually living in those countries (after 10 years there, I was even a Green Party member in the UK).
Basically the 3rd and 4th placed parties are both far-right.
The 3rd most voted one (Iniciativa Liberal) is an ultra neoliberal party that basically wants to replace the European-style social safety net with an American model on steroids, which in American terms is probably at the right most end of the Democrat Party politics or a bit to the right of it. Their entire politics has no local origin whatsoever and their ideas are entirelly imported, so it does match very closely the kind of politics of American Finance types and Tech Bros (though Iniciativa Liberal did shut out about privatising the National Health Service when they saw just how badly received that was in Portugal).
The 4th most voted one (Chega) are Fascists of a mild strain. Portugal had Fascism until the Revolution of 74 and it was never very violent (not really prone to murdering and during WWII Portugal was even a safe transit point for Jews fleeing the Nazis, though the government of the time would not let Jewish refugees stay in the country) which is probably more a product of the Portuguese culture - one of the safest countries in the World when it comes to violence - than of the local Fascist being in any way “nice”: people just aren’t comfortable with high levels of violence so those parties know that won’t sell well except amongst tiny tiny fridges (neo-nazi movements never amounted to much or lasted long around here). Nationalism in Portugal is pretty mild - as a small country which was dirt poor until recently, the Portuguese simply don’t think of themselves as superior to most other Europeans (or, as far as I can tell, any other Europeans) - and Religion has considerably decayed toward general agnosticism since the Revolution in 74, so the modern Fascists here doesn’t go for religiosity. Their politics pretty much all add up to anti-immigration and anti-establishment, with a bit of nationalism but one a lot less rabbid than what I’ve seen for example in the UK and which has no actual anti-Europeanism, so all very mild by comparison with for example Trump and even the AfD’s and Le Penn’s variants of Fascism.
Good to hear that. Now, why are the Portuguese able to defeat far-right parties and the other European countries are not? What’s different in Portugal?
No we were not able to. We are sending extreme right wings for the first time to europe. 2 of them. They are the 3rd force now.
Thank you for the info, I really should subscribe to Euractiv so I can read the whole article…
In my experience it’s pretty hard to get the politics of a different country without a significative time investment, and I say this as somebody who has moved into a couple of countries and eventually started getting the politics there even though I was actually living in those countries (after 10 years there, I was even a Green Party member in the UK).
Basically the 3rd and 4th placed parties are both far-right.
The 3rd most voted one (Iniciativa Liberal) is an ultra neoliberal party that basically wants to replace the European-style social safety net with an American model on steroids, which in American terms is probably at the right most end of the Democrat Party politics or a bit to the right of it. Their entire politics has no local origin whatsoever and their ideas are entirelly imported, so it does match very closely the kind of politics of American Finance types and Tech Bros (though Iniciativa Liberal did shut out about privatising the National Health Service when they saw just how badly received that was in Portugal).
The 4th most voted one (Chega) are Fascists of a mild strain. Portugal had Fascism until the Revolution of 74 and it was never very violent (not really prone to murdering and during WWII Portugal was even a safe transit point for Jews fleeing the Nazis, though the government of the time would not let Jewish refugees stay in the country) which is probably more a product of the Portuguese culture - one of the safest countries in the World when it comes to violence - than of the local Fascist being in any way “nice”: people just aren’t comfortable with high levels of violence so those parties know that won’t sell well except amongst tiny tiny fridges (neo-nazi movements never amounted to much or lasted long around here). Nationalism in Portugal is pretty mild - as a small country which was dirt poor until recently, the Portuguese simply don’t think of themselves as superior to most other Europeans (or, as far as I can tell, any other Europeans) - and Religion has considerably decayed toward general agnosticism since the Revolution in 74, so the modern Fascists here doesn’t go for religiosity. Their politics pretty much all add up to anti-immigration and anti-establishment, with a bit of nationalism but one a lot less rabbid than what I’ve seen for example in the UK and which has no actual anti-Europeanism, so all very mild by comparison with for example Trump and even the AfD’s and Le Penn’s variants of Fascism.