Fascism Arrives As Your Friend

The new month begins with a warm afternoon - by English standards, that is - and the temperature at 19º. It is quiet and peaceful in Pinhal Novo, part of the Setúbal district, a historically big left-voting area, the place where the then Mayor refused to turn out to greet The Queen in 1985. But outside the north entrance to the station, a loud and hectoring voice can be heard.

An innocuous looking awning ...

Campaign mode has arrived: there are elections to the Assembly of the Republic, the Portuguese Parliament, on March 10. The previous Parliament was dissolved by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa when long-serving Prime Minister António Costa resigned last November after being made a suspect in a corruption investigation into contracts for lithium mining.

Had this been the UK, and the Tory Party, there would most likely not have been a resignation, but Costa was adamant: he had not been charged with any wrongdoing, but the mere suspicion of impropriety meant that he had to do the decent thing. This has played into the hands of the The Fash: the far-right in Portugal is seeking to emulate its sister parties elsewhere.

And thus the audio being broadcast from a makeshift awning outside Pinhal Novo station. This is of selected speeches made by André Ventura, who leads CHEGA (“enough”), third largest party in the 2022 elections, which is running on a single issue, “LIMPAR PORTUGAL” ("To Clean Portugal").

... is part of his journey ...

Ventura contends that, more or less, all the other parties are corrupt. He alone can clear out the corruption. Allowing those accused the benefit of due process seemingly does not enter. We are not told the method by which the cleaning takes place. And those who know what demagogues sound like may have a serious problem on hearing Ventura’s broadcast words. Gone is the video showing a clown-like, Chaplinesque, figure. Only the audio remains.

It sounds chilling. The howling tone, the repetition of phrases and initial parts of sentences, the clearly rehearsed screaming rhetoric, the staged pauses for applause, all sound reminiscent of a range of dictatorships, most notably that of 1930s Germany. If Ventura claims not to have listened to Hitler’s oratory, he is most likely lying. His party has already begun using another Nazi tactic.

As in the staged Parliamentary walk-out: the NSDAP made increasing use of this as it gained seats, the idea being to delegitimise the relevant assembly. The idea that “only he can deal with the problem” is also out of the dictator playbook, used regularly in Portugal by Antonio de Oliveira Salazar to justify his continued presence, along with rigged, or absent, elections.

... from figure of ridicule ...

The effect of Ventura’s hectoring on those passing on their way to and from the station can be gauged by those looking after the CHEGA stall not repeating the playback, thus sparing their audience. And, apart from scarves being given away to unsuspecting schoolkids, few seemed bothered. But come the election aftermath, their parents just might be.

Ventura has previously called for a new dictatorship. He wants to proclaim the Fourth Republic, which is more or less the same thing. His party conference passed a motion declaring that women who have abortions should have their ovaries removed. He told a black Deputada that she should be returned to her country of origin. He wants to put Portugal’s Roma population in camps. He has been caught making a Nazi salute. But there is one saving grace.

Like former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, Ventura talks the talk, but when it comes to taking responsibility for anything, will be Absent Elsewhere. The idea of him pursuing power is as a dog chasing a car: were he to catch it, he wouldn’t know what to do with it. But he wants to be a kingmaker. Someone else will exercise power. And it will all be their fault.

... to a very bad place indeed

Nor will he be comfortable with being asked whether he will celebrate 50 years of the Revolution in April. Or if his cleaning up his country will entail summary judgment on anyone accused of misconduct. Or to whom his brave new world will be accountable. Or to confirm that those Who Are Not White are still considered equal in the world of his overwhelmingly white party.

Why that might be is clear: Ventura has stood behind a banner proclaiming “Portugal Não É Racista” (“Portugal is not racist”), but his own pronouncements demonstrate that he is just that. CHEGA is the name, and scratching the racist itch is the game. Would the voters care to play?

It is not only in the USA that democracy is on the ballot this year. Like Farage, another fringe loudmouth amplified by a complicit media for ratings, Ventura will claim he is just voicing the people’s concerns. In reality, both are bad faith actors whom their respective countries could well do without.

Remember well that howling rhetoric. Remember whence it came. That is where CHEGA is headed. Ventura does not have the answers he claims.

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