Quarteira, Portugal, May 11 :A lawmaker from Portugal's far-right Chega party smiled and greeted shoppers at a market in the southernmost Algarve province, where it is looking to repeat its past success in next weekend's snap election.
"It's here that we see the reality of the country," said Joao Paulo Graca, 51, as he handed out copies of the party's weekly newspaper at the open-air market in the resort town of Quarteira.
Other parties only come when they are campaigning, added Graca, a regular at the weekly farmers' market in the former fishing village lined with concrete hotel blocks on the Algarve's sun-kissed coastline.
He also offered passers-by wristbands in the red and green of the Portuguese flag with the slogan "God, country, family and work" -- similar to the motto used during the repressive dictatorship that ruled Portugal between 1926 and 1974.
Chega, whose name means "enough" in Portuguese, has been the third-largest force in the NATO and European Union member state's parliament since 2022.
It quadrupled its representation in the assembly in the last general election in March 2024, winning 50 of the 230 seats. That increase mirrored gains by similar anti-establishment parties across Europe.
Chega's focus on blaming rising immigration for perceived increasing crime rates and a lack of affordable housing was particularly popular with voters in the Algarve. It was the only province where it came first in the last election, with 27.2 percent of the vote.
The party hopes to do even better in the May 18 snap general election, which follows the collapse of Prime Minister Luis Montenegro's centre-right minority government in March.
- 'Change things' -
Mainstream parties have so far refused to cooperate with Chega, led by Andre Ventura, a former TV sports commentator who once trained to be a priest.
"We should give them a chance to implement their programme and change things," Faustino Fonseca, a 55-year-old butcher, told AFP at the market near Quarteira's cobbled promenade lined with palm trees.
At his nearby fruit and vegetable stand, 45-year-old Edmundo Silva, agreed. The party "deserves to be in power" because "they tell the truth", he said.
University of Lisbon political analyst Marina Costa Lobo said Chega had grown by capturing the votes of people who usually abstained.
The party's condemnation of the people who "benefit from the resources of the welfare state to the detriment of the Portuguese population" has "resonated strongly with those who feel abandoned by the central government", she told AFP.
Local people complain about the poor quality of public services such as healthcare and education in the Algarve, where many people work in low-paid tourism-related seasonal jobs.
The province of roughly 500,000 people has one of the highest proportions of foreign residents in Portugal. Growing numbers of them are low-income migrants from South Asian countries such as Bangladesh and India, competing with locals for scarce affordable housing.
- 'Party of the people' -
But outgoing Environment Minister Maria da Graca Carvalho, who heads the centre-right Democratic Alliance's list in the Algarve, cautioned against simplistic arguments.
"It's the lack of answers to these questions that leads people to vote for the extremes," she told AFP at the party's Lisbon headquarters.
She criticised formations with "shock slogans" that offer "solutions that are rarely credible".
While campaigning in the Algarve on Wednesday, the head of the main opposition Socialist Party, Pedro Nuno Santos, set the goal of "once again becoming the leading political force" in the region.
Surveys suggest the Democratic Alliance will again win the most votes, narrowly ahead of the Socialists, but fall short of an absolute majority in parliament, with Chega third once more.
Back at the market in Quarteira however, Chega's Graca was optimistic for a strong result.
"We are a party of the people... and people can feel it," he said.
