Zurich, Switzerland, Jan. 23, 2026 (Lusa) - The Portuguese presidential candidate supported by the far-right Chega Party, André Ventura, has called on Portuguese emigrants in Switzerland to participate in the second round of the elections, telling them that, for the first time in democratic history, their vote "will be decisive".
At a dinner rally in Volketswil, in the canton of Zurich, which brought together around 250 emigrants, the leader of Chega, who on arrival had already accused the Social Democrats (PSD), but also the Christian Democrats (CDS) and the Liberal Initiative, of joining the "pot of interests" for demonstrations of support for the Socialist (PS)-backed candidate, António José Seguro, called for mass participation by emigrants in the second round to "change the system", in which "everyone is against one".
"They didn't want you to vote, and you voted. They didn't want us to make it to the second round, but we did. Now they are all against us. But I want to say this, and not just to this room and to those who are here, but to all emigrants around the world: this is the first time in our democratic history that emigrants will be decisive," he said.
"If 80% of our emigrants abroad vote, we will have a new Portuguese president who wants to break with the system. If they don't vote, we will have more of the same with António José Seguro, and we cannot have another 10 years of more of the same," he said.
Amid cries of "On 8 February, Ventura is first", the candidate supported by Chega insisted that the parties of the “system” are making it difficult for emigrants to vote by requiring them to vote in person, and said that they are doing so because they know that the votes of those who were forced to leave Portugal "are not in the system".
Stating several times during his speech that emigrants are "treated as second-class Portuguese" and “disposable”, while immigrants arriving in Portugal "have everything handed to them on a plate", he reiterated that his "main mission" is to bring Portuguese emigrants "back", but for that to happen, they need to vote on 8 February.
"We cannot continue to import the third world into Portugal a never-ending queue of people, and let the best ones leave," he said.
Rebelling against the debate on whether Portugal owes an apology for its colonial past, André Ventura said that "the only apology" the country owes "is to all the families who had to leave for Portugal in search of a better life".
At the end of the dinner rally, Ventura was in high demand for selfies by the emigrants who filled the hall, in a country that has proved to be a stronghold for Chega: after already being the most voted party in the 2024 legislative elections, with 32.62% of the votes, Ventura's party reinforced its status as the main political force among emigrants in Switzerland in 2025 by obtaining 45.72% of the votes, with a large advantage over the PSD/CDS coalition (13.67%) and the PS (8.69%), contributing to the election of an MP for the European constituency.
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