A few days before celebrating the 50th anniversary of the “Carnation Revolution,” the Portuguese tripled the points of the right-wing nationalist party Chiga during the snap legislative elections that took place on March 10. In France, how do Portuguese descendants vote?
He understood it. Portugal, like Spain, seemed permanently immune to the sirens of the populist right. In the same way that Fox appeared, Chiga (French for “enough”) appeared.
The recipe: anti-immigration and anti-corruption rhetoric. From one deputy in 2019, the party’s number of seats rose to 12 in 2022, then to 48 during the legislative elections in March 2024 – in a 230-seat council. Andre Ventura was an isolated lawmaker when he was elected five years ago, and now he is one of the leading leaders within Europe's populist right.
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But then, how did the Portuguese community in France vote? Of the two seats given to the Portuguese in France, one was won by José Dias Fernández, vice president of Chiga. At the Marseille consulate, Chiga's vote rose to 20% and he found himself in the lead. At the national level, the percentage is 16%. Note that the party also ranks first among large diaspora groups based in Switzerland and Luxembourg. On the Fdesouche website, one person (descendant of Portuguese immigrants) comments: “Next time, I will apply for Portuguese citizenship, just to vote for Chiga. » If opinion polls based on ethnic origin are banned in France, a study conducted by Sciences Po Paris in 2017 showed that half of young French people of Portuguese origin were willing to vote for Marine Le Pen, while the behavior of older people was closer to the national whole. The former president of the National Front (like her father indeed in his time) winked at the Portuguese community, holding it up as a model of successful assimilation.
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Marion, a right-wing activist who met at a “Reconquest!” meeting. » From March 10 the Lusodecending, commented in the margin on the first results coming from Lisbon: “The vote of a large part of the Portuguese community for Le Pen or Zemmour is a confirmation of full support for the French national project. Strangely enough, for the most enthusiastic people who vote for Shiga, it's like being able to vote a second time for Maren or Eric! »
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