EU far-right ‘rising steadily’ for decades as centrists embrace their policies, ‘give them traction’

“Chega is a new party, and until recently, Portugal was one of the few European countries that did not have a successful far-right party”, said Dr. Marta Lorimer, Fellow in European Politics in the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science. “The causes for its success are multiple, but a lot of it had to do with corruption scandals that touched the other political parties, and with the leader who is a fairly respectable former centre-right politician, who’s quite well-known across the country.”