The leader of the Portuguese far-right party Chega, André Ventura, strongly opposes the arrival of migrants and refugees in his country. He aims to implement strict anti-immigration laws. As the number of migrants in Portugal has increased over the past decade, Ventura blames foreign workers for every crime and wrongdoing in the country.
On Monday, Portugal’s government announced a plan for new migration rules to reform migration policies. The government plans to tighten work permission rules and utilise a portion of the Golden Visa scheme to improve the living conditions of migrants.
To support his proposals, the President of Chega launched a campaign against foreigners, presenting “evidence” of the harm they cause to Portuguese society and the economy, including videos. However, it has been revealed that not all the videos shared by Ventura and Chega were authentic.
Chega is facing accusations of manipulating a video that purported to show a migrant worker confronting Ventura. SIC TV reported that the video shared by Chega was manipulated, with images taken out of context and subtitles altered to make it appear that the migrant had lied about his nationality and job.
Ventura denied the video was altered and accused his enemies of fabricating his story to discredit the party ahead of the EU election. He also said the reporters covering the story are “enemies of the people”.
The far-right Chega, a partner of Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders and Matteo Salvini, is the third-largest political party in Portugal.
These revelations come at a crucial time for Chega, which emerged as the third-largest political party in Portugal after the snap elections on March 10. The party had high hopes of capitalising on the general rise of the far-right in the June 6-9 European Parliament election. However, recent polls suggest a decline in public support, with the party’s popularity dropping from 18.1% in March to 12%.
