The menu at this Welsh bar in the Algarve may not include much Portuguese food, but the talk among diners is all about matters close to home: the general election on Sunday, which will decide the country’s future.
The snap election was triggered after the outgoing conservative Prime Minister Luis Montenegro failed a confidence vote last month over a conflict of interest relating to a consultancy firm he founded and passed to his children.
In the last election in 2024, Chega won 50 of the 230 seats, quadrupling its share in parliament. The rise of this far-right party mirrors similar gains by hard-right parties across Europe, in Italy, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
The party wants to hold a referendum on establishing a cap on residence permits and “establishing immigration quotas”. But this is mainly directed at migrants from Asia, and a large influx of migrants in recent years.
Just as in other parts of Europe, the populist message is proving attractive, particularly among young people.
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“I think Portugal is becoming more divided. Old people might vote for the Socialists. In my opinion, for the past 50 years, we have had Socialists and a conservative Social Democratic Party, but things have gone really bad,” he told The i Paper.
Jordan added: “Chega says a lot of what people like to hear. They talk about Portugal’s problems – immigration, wages, housing, even stuff like infrastructure. Only in the last few years have we been allowed to have a free motorway in the Algarve. Before that we had to pay.”
Debbie Silva, the British manager of Taffy’s Bar, is not able to vote as she is a resident of Portugal but not a citizen.
Antonio Costa Pinto, a political scientist at the University of Lisbon, said young people from all political persuasions were drawn to Chega because of its anti-migrant message.
“Chega is all about an anti-immigration feeling against Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who work in tourism and other industries. The centre-right tried to get tough on migrants, but it did not work,” he said.
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