Paper short abstract:

The recent appearance of the far-right CHEGA party, the appeal to religious and political populism has assumed a central position in the rhetoric used and as a way to appeal to voters. This has led to resurgence of right-wing catholic populism in Portugal.

Paper long abstract:

In the last few years, the growth of the far-right, no only in Portugal but worldwide, has had an openly religious expression. The most famous cases of this type of expression are present in the US, with Donald Trump and the Republican Party, but also in Brazil in the case of Jair Bolsonaro and his allies, both relating to Christian evangelical and pentecostal religious expressions.

In Portugal, since 1974, when it left fascism behind and became a democracy, this type of religious discourse is not common even among parties which assume their religious position openly, as is the case of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDS).

However, with the recent appearance of the far-right CHEGA party and its leader André Ventura, this appeal to religious and political populism has assumed a central position in the rhetoric used and as a way to appeal to its followers. Initially attempting to appeal both to Catholic and Evangelical voters, it has since recentred on right-wing catholic populism.

In this paper I seek to chart the history of the political antecedents which might help to explain this tactical move as well as analyse the way in which André Ventura uses catholic religious expressions as a way to self-promote, which is is target audience and which political parallels can be found with other European politicians in the same political quadrant.