There are Portuguese people who “take their bread and health to pay their share in Chega”

Author of the book Inside Chega predicts that the phenomenon will continue even if André Ventura leaves. It’s the “feeling of abandonment”.

There were years of investigation into the origins and corridors of Chega, and the followers of André Ventura’s party. The book is called.

In an interview with , author Miguel Carvalho comments that the Chega is a project of “personal power from the beginningof a man who wanted to be a writer, wanted to be president of Benfica, wanted to be a commentator, wanted to be everything”.

However, there are many people interested in exploring the phenomenon more than just its leader – which is the focus of his book. “There is a leader overexposure”, he considers.

Miguel thinks that “’Ventura Country’ will be here even if André Ventura leavesbecause there is a clear sense of abandonment. If the Governments and the State do not respond to problems that have long been identified – poor public services or even the disappearance of the State – this ‘Ventura Country’ will look for another Ventura”, he warns.

“But I continue to make a separation between Chega’s leadership and political apparatus, with its deputies, its electoral universe, which is much more complex, much more varied and has very diverse and contradictory motivations for choosing Chega”, he describes.

The writer looks at Chega as a party ultra-heterogeneous because the party “came to break with everything that was the typical adherence to traditional parties”.

There is voters of Chega que don’t agree with many of the party’s ideas: “Many Chega activists really don’t like the speech that André Ventura makes, for example, in relation to the gypsy community. Either because they live close to a gypsy community and have never had any problems or because they have gypsy friends, all of that.”

But “reject that.” And if the subject is, for example, sexual education in schools, “they think that Ventura is the only person who fights this. And the reverse is also true. It’s really very complex.”

Much of the financing Chega is Portuguese. Lots of people with wealth and big families. But there is another type of financiers: “I also found people who are able to take their bread and health to pay their share in Chega. And this is very significant too.”

Arrives does not have an ideologue Now, analyze Miguel Carvalho. Its basic ideology, “with some hints of delayed nationalism and some identity politics, is the essential agenda of neoliberalism. Maintaining the State in its functions most linked to security, defense, etc. and placing it at the most fragile point possible. Reducing taxes on a large scale for large companies.” But it was never a party very interested in talking about ideologies.

Miguel feels that, if there is early elections, o Chega is a “serious candidate” to win.

If Luís Montenegro’s government reaches 2028, it will be more complicated for Ventura – because there are “symptoms of wear and tear on Chega with the electorate; This can be seen at the municipal level, in Serpa, where Chega reached extraordinary votes right from the beginning, and has now gone from 15% to 8%. I reported there, I felt some wear and tear due to the lack of commitment to the word given and this could be spreading”.