Ventura Claims Sá Carneiro Legacy, Roiling Portugal's Conservative Bloc

A chilly November breeze has done little to cool the temperature of Portugal’s presidential pre-campaign. In the space of a single week, André Ventura managed to reignite internal rivalries on the right, alienate potential partners and, at the same time, place himself squarely in the media spotlight by announcing that he wishes to be remembered as the spiritual heir of Francisco Sá Carneiro.

Ventura’s offensive scrambles the conservative playing field

The leader of campaign vehicle Chega chose a university auditorium in Coimbra to unleash his latest barrage, casting himself as the only true bearer of Sá Carneiro’s mantle and portraying the rest of the field as puppets of a complacent establishment. The result was an evening thick with conservative nostalgia, sharpened rhetoric and no shortage of theatrical flourish. Ventura, whose party Chega hovers around 17% in recent polls, insisted that the presidential palace must host a voice willing to “confront the system head-on”. That offensive was quickly amplified across talk-shows and social media, forcing every other contender to react and turning a routine debate cycle into a referendum on the limits of right-wing populism. Whether the broader electorate is moved or merely entertained, the road to Belém now runs through the grievances Ventura lined up on this crisp November evening.

Invoking Sá Carneiro: between reverence and repudiation

The appropriation of Sá Carneiro’s name was designed for maximum symbolic value. Inside the faded orange walls of the old auditorium, Ventura praised the “courage” of the co-founder of the PSD while simultaneously arguing that the former prime minister would, today, choose Chega over his own party. That claim immediately collided with the legacy guardians at the Instituto Francisco Sá Carneiro, who issued a late-night statement branding the comparison “absurd” and warning that no one inside the PSD is fooled by what they see as opportunistic myth-making. The institute reminded the public that Sá Carneiro stood for a Nordic-style mythology of social-democracy and pluralism—positions, it said, diametrically opposed to Chega’s stance on immigration, criminal policy and the welfare state. The institute later accused Ventura of “demagogic distortion” of Sá Carneiro’s repudiation of authoritarianism, stressing that the founder’s values remain anchored in inclusive politics. For long-time PSD militants, the episode opened fresh wounds over how the party has handled its own contrast with Chega: do they confront, co-opt or ignore a rival who uses the same historical symbolism to attack them from the right flank?

Rival responses and the widening ideological gulf

Henrique Gouveia e Melo, the retired admiral who vaulted to stardom during the vaccination drive, bristled at Ventura’s insinuation that he serves as “the PS candidate”. On immigration, he defended Portugal’s need for labour and dismissed Ventura’s ban-the-burqa proposal as a distraction from hospital queues and budget deficits. The tussle over immigration and security soon spilled into a larger argument about the economy, with Ventura labelling Gouveia e Melo “candidate of the void” and accusing him of hiding behind a media halo while offering little substance. Luís Marques Mendes, for his part, fired back in a television commentary that Ventura’s populism would dismantle institutions and that the presidency should not become a stage for culture-war theatrics. Ventura seized on Mendes’ remark to demand a debate focused solely on the burqa, hospital staffing and healthcare, dismissing his older rival’s “lack of courage”. Observers note that the exchanges risk hardening voter perceptions: Chega mobilises discontent, Gouveia e Melo pushes managerial moderation, while Marques Mendes warns of democratic fallout should the populist tide reach the gates of the republic. The word democracy thus became both weapon and shield, wielded differently by each protagonist.

Coalition calculus: PSD’s delicate balancing act toward 2026

Beyond the personal skirmishes lies the real arena of power: the quiet, grinding arithmetic of parliamentary survival. Any path to a centre-right majority passes, at some point, through the Chega bench. Yet Ventura’s latest outburst complicates the prospect of a coalition by reinforcing suspicions inside the PSD’s liberal wing that it should never share power with the right-wing firebrand. Behind closed doors, party strategists weigh the cost of alienating moderate pensioners in Aveiro against the risk of losing young rural voters to Chega if they refuse negotiations. Ventura understands this leverage and repeatedly signals that his party’s influence will come at a steep price: a referendum on life imprisonment, tougher border controls and a return to “merit” in welfare. For PSD leader Luís Montenegro, the red lines are equally clear; he must keep the AD government intact while crafting a 2026 strategy that does not hand Ventura the keys to the agenda. Polling suggests the dance could continue until election night, with undecided voters holding the balance of power. If current numbers hold, the right will have to choose between an awkward marriage or another minority administration vulnerable to drift and instability. Either way, the words hurled this November are likely to echo well into 2026, shaping alliances that have yet to be sealed.