An Intrapolls opinion poll has found that the leader of Portugal’s far-right party Chega - André Ventura, has found himself points above the other main contenders in the country’s presidential election, to be held in January 2026.
Ventura finds himself with 25% of the voting intention in his favour, four points ahead of Independent candidate Henrique Gouveia e Melo and Socialist Party (PS) candidate António Jose Seguro (both at 21%), and five points ahead of the Democratic Alliance’s (AD) Luís Marques Mendes (20%)
The party gloated on social media, writing: “Our president is already ahead. Let us join forces and beat the candidates of the system already in the first round of the presidential elections.”
The populist party leader, having built a reputation on being strongly against corruption, establishment politics, illegal immigration, and opposed in many ways to legal immigration, announced on Tuesday that he would stand in the 2026 presidential elections. It is the second time Ventura has done so after standing in 2021 and coming in third place. According to the news source Observador, Ventura said that there had to be a candidate who represented “the struggle against corruption and uncontrolled immigration”.
Last Friday, Ventura told the party’s National Council that he did not want to enter the race in Belém, but that he would be a candidate if the members wanted: “If they want and understand that I should go, I will be here. If they decide that I shouldn’t go, I’ll be here. And if they understand that someone else should go, I will be here.” The Chega leader also assumed that the party cannot “escape” from presidential suffrage and that the objective should be to have a candidate who can compete in a hypothetical second round.
In a separate opinion poll carried out this month by Aximage, based on 570 online interviews, Chega was placed in the lead with 26.8%, narrowly ahead of Luís Montenegro’s Democratic Alliance (AD) on 25.9% and the Socialist Party (PS) on 23.6%.
Further down the rankings, Livre registers 6.5%, Iniciativa Liberal (IL) 6.2%, the Communists (CDU) 3.1%, the Left Bloc (BE) 2.4%, and the Greens–PAN alliance 1.7%.
In terms of leader approval, André Ventura tops the table with 40% positive ratings, matching Prime Minister Luís Montenegro but carrying marginally fewer negatives (50% against Montenegro’s 51%). PS leader José Luís Carneiro follows with 34% positive and 40% negative. At the other end, Communist chief Paulo Raimundo scores the lowest, with only 21% positive evaluations.
Government performance draws widespread criticism: 59% of respondents describe it as poor or very poor, compared with just 31% who call it good or very good.
On the question of who is best suited to be prime minister, Montenegro leads with 28%, followed by Ventura on 24% and Carneiro on 20%, while a further 20% back none of the three.
As for the current head of state, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is viewed more negatively than positively, with 55% rating his performance poor or very poor, against 37% who consider it good or very good.
