Welcome to the Week em Breve, a wrap-up of important Portuguese news to keep you up to date and in the know.
Police Arrest Six Suspected Neo-Nazis, Including Police Officer
Polícia Judiciária (PJ) arrested six suspected neo-nazis who are part of Movimento Armilar Lusitano, considered an armed militia, and seized explosives and firearms, including 3D-printed guns as well as four printers to make such weapons, according to Público.
PJ confirmed that one of the detainees was an officer of Polícia de Segurança Pública (PSP) with a senior position in Lisbon’s municipal police, Público writes.
Other security forces staff are among the members as well — while the group’s numbers were not cited, the Telegram channel where they exchange messages has over 900 members, PJ said, according to Público.
Among the other items found were books by Hitler and flags of the neo-nazi group 1143, led by Mário Machado, a notorious member of the extreme right who’s been regularly appearing at rallies in Lisbon in recent months.
Manuela Santos, director of the PJ’s National Counterterrorism Unit (Unidade Nacional de Contraterrorismo – UNCT), which was responsible for the arrests, said the group was preparing for something “on their horizon,” according to Público.
Last week’s detentions follow arrests made earlier this month after a mob of 30 neo-nazis harassed actors in front of a theater in Santos and attacked one of them, putting him in the hospital, during Portugal Day celebrations.
Racism and Intolerance on the Rise in Portugal But Hate Speech ‘Trivialized’: Report
The far-right may be getting bolder because of what the Council of Europe Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) characterizes as the “trivialization” of online hate speech in Portugal, “often under the guise of freedom of speech,” the human rights monitoring body said in a report issued Wednesday.
The ECRI said “credible reports” from local groups suggest there’s been a “sharp rise” in hate speech directed at migrants, Roma, LGBTQ+, and Black people:
“To name but a few examples, several schools and universities have been vandalized with messages of a racist nature (such as ‘Europe is white’ and ‘Blacks go back to Africa’), a Black representative of the National Assembly was asked to ‘be sent back to her country of origin’ by the leader of the far-right party Chega, racist slurs and swastikas appeared on the walls of premises of anti-racist NGOs, and Black activists have been frequently targeted by hate speech and threats,” ECRI wrote in the report.
The group suggests making human rights education “an integral part of the school curriculum” in Portugal.
Why People Voted for Chega
ECRI’s report, the group said, “covers the situation up to 18 November 2024.”
The situation has changed pretty substantially since then, of course, with the far-right party Chega — still led by the man who suggested his colleague be sent back to Africa — becoming the second-largest party in the Portuguese assembly in May, putting them ahead of the Socialists and only slightly behind the ruling coalition, the center-right Democratic Alliance (AD).
Journalists at Observador wanted to find out what tempted more than 1.4 million Portuguese to vote for André Ventura’s Chega, and managed to get 60 of these voters to explain themselves.
In a nutshell – many of them came out to vote for the first time in years, and most of those who voted for Chega did so over concerns for safety related to immigration, despite the majority of those polled not having been a victim of any crime, nor knowing anyone else who has been.
Worry about safety was followed by fatigue with more traditional parties.
Dive into the report if you want to hear other opinions concerning Roma communities, people collecting state benefits, and more.
AD Wants to Tighten Screws on Immigration
Meanwhile, the government led by AD’s Luís Montenegro — who said in April that it was “impossible to govern with Chega,” in part because Ventura lacks “maturity and decency” — continues advancing many of the proposals, albeit in a diluted version, first floated by Chega.
Case in point: the nationality law the AD put forward last week would allow authorities to strip away Portuguese nationality from immigrants convicted of serious crimes — similar to a proposal presented by Chega four years ago and deemed unconstitutional at the time, according to Público.
That’s not the first time Chega’s proposals floated up into AD’s.
And for anyone dragging their feet getting their citizenship after five years legally residing in Portugal, you may want to get off that comfy café chair: another measure proposed by AD would extend the minimum residency requirement to 10 years, Público writes.
Portuguese Most Fearful About Collapse of EU, WWIII, Nukes
While all this goes on internally, the Portuguese are very, very worried about threats from the outside, according to a new survey of 12 European countries published by the think tank European Council on Foreign Relations cited by Público.
In a survey conducted in May, 65% of those polled in Portugal were worried about the collapse of the European Union, compared to 55% of Estonians, who were the second-most-worried, and well above the 11% of Danes, for example.
Portuguese were also more worried than other Europeans about the collapse of NATO, the use of nuclear weapons, a war in Europe beyond Ukraine, and the possibility of World War III, according to the survey, which also polled Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom
Perhaps the worries are unfounded, or perhaps the Portuguese know something no one else does: 54% of those surveyed in Portugal — the European country furthest from Russia, with several large nations in between — are also worried about the possibility of a Russian invasion, behind only Poland (65%), which shares a border with Russia, but ahead of Estonia (52%), which likewise has Russia right next to it.
