The Portuguese far-right party Chega is demanding a role in government after winning 48 seats in the 230-seat legislature, news agency Reuters reports.
The centre-right Democratic Alliance has claimed victory after winning 79 seats in Portugal’s general election, with more than 99 percent of votes counted as of early Tuesday morning. However, it has so far refused to form a government with Chega, which has a nationalist and anti-immigration agenda.
Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa – who as head of state is required to remain neutral – has meanwhile come under fire after telling the Expresso newspaper that he would try to prevent Chega from gaining power.
[See more: The centre-right Democratic Alliance is claiming victory in the Portuguese elections]
Chega’s leader Andre Ventura – a sports pundit turned politician – says his party would vote against the state budget if Chega was not brought into government.
Javier Rouillet, an analyst at DBRS Morningstar, told Reuters that if vital legislation was stymied, more elections could be held later this year or early next.
The present election was triggered last November, when a corruption probe led to the resignation of Socialist prime minister António Costa. Resentment against Portugal’s main political parties over graft, a housing shortage, inflation and low incomes have created a climate of discontentment that the fledgling Chega has used to its advantage.
