This chapter outlines the development of the Portuguese right and far-right during the democratic regime, from 1974 to 2021, in terms of political movements and parties, ideology and electoral outcomes. The first section contextualizes the Portuguese mainstream right-of-centre parties in the context of the democratic transition and later in their evolution until 1995. The following two sections deal with the Portuguese far-right in the context of the democratic transition from 1972 to 1982, and in the period of consolidated democracy, from the 1980s until the present day, with particular attention paid to the recent populist radical right party Chega, which has achieved parliamentary representation for this political segment in Portugal for the first time. The final section returns to the Portuguese mainstream right-of-centre political space to analyse the period from the mid-1990s until the present day, when the left has become dominant and the right has mostly acted as an opposition force, with some limited exceptions.
Although Portugal does not have a significant radical right presence in its party system, in the last decades the country did witness the development of a neo-Nazi skinhead movement that expressed its white nationalist nature and goals through the musical genres of Rock Against Communism (RAC) and the related Oi!. Utilizing various historical sources, this study contextualizes the development of nationalist music in Portugal, both before and especially during the democratic period . It focuses on its protagonists, domestic and international networks, as well as on the few attempts to establish a common cause with radical right-wing political parties at the turn of the century and in present times.
Contributor NotesRiccardo Marchi is a post-doctoral researcher at the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Center for International Studies with a project on counter-subversion in Portugal during the Cold War in a comparative perspective. His research fields are rightwing radicalism and the relations between states and radical organizations in contemporary Europe. In particular he wrote two monographs and several academic texts on the Portuguese radical right at the end of the authoritarian regime and during the democratic period. Since 2016 he is the leader of the Portuguese team of the international network Direitas, História e Memória (DHM).José Pedro Zúquete is a political scientist. His research focuses on radical politics, nationalisms, and social movements. He is currently a research fellow at
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