In an article published on the Italian platform Network for the Study of Democracies (NeSDe), the directors of the Observatory of Democracy and Political Representation, Guya Accornero and José Santana Pereira, analyze the impacts of the May 18, 2025 legislative elections and propose a reflection on whether a Portuguese path to populism has been established.

Among other topics, Accornero and Santana Pereira point out that, unlike Spain and Greece, the economic crisis in Portugal did not result in the emergence of a new “competitor” capable of challenging bipolarism and disputing the government with the two parties of the “central bloc.” However, the Portuguese political landscape changed in 2019 with the entry into parliament of Chega, Livre, and Iniciativa Liberal (IL). Chega, in particular, has shown remarkable growth with each election, going from 1 to 12 deputies, then to 50, and finally to 60 deputies—in a new legislature in which one-third of parliamentary seats are occupied by political forces that were not present in parliament just six years ago.

The authors argue that the results of the May 18, 2025 elections should be interpreted as part of a dynamic that has gone through several phases, in which the right-wing populist party has managed to consolidate and mobilize a considerable sector of the electorate by exploiting classic themes of this political family: immigration, corruption, defense of the traditional family, and Western values.

Read the full article, in Italian, at: https://nesde.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/eleicoes_PT.pdf