How The Far Right Looks Set To Win Portugal’s Algarve – With Implications For Tourism

At Taffy’s Bar & Grill in Portimão, the diners can choose between a rack of ribs, cod and chips or other dishes.

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.

In this southern region of Portugal, which last year attracted 1.2 million British tourists, the far-right Chega party is likely to win the largest share of the vote.

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.

Chega, whose name is Portuguese for “enough”, has been the third-largest force in Portugal since 2022.

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.

Blaming crime on rising immigration has proved popular among voters in the Algarve, where a lack of affordable housing and poor state infrastructure helped Chega win first place in last year’s election, with 27.2 per cent of the vote.

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.

Chega is pro-business so it will not take aim at British tourists or those UK citizens who have made their home in Portugal and bring badly needed foreign capital.

Just as in other parts of Europe, the populist message is proving attractive, particularly among young people.

Jordan Silva, 28, a hotel receptionist who has joint British and Portuguese nationality, is going to vote for Chega on Sunday. His mother, Debbie Silva, is British, and his late father was Portuguese.

“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.

“I think I am going to vote for Chega. When they appeared, I was a bit against them. But the reality is the party is getting bigger and better. I would say most people have lost faith in the big parties.”

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.”

Polls predict Sunday’s election may end with no overall winner and all the established parties have vowed not to share power with Chega.

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.

“I can say that the youngsters are going to vote for Chega, like my two children,” Debbie said.

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.