André Ventura

André Claro Amaral Ventura (born 15 January 1983) is a Portuguese politician, jurist, university teacher, tax expert and former sports pundit, who is the founder and President of the right-wing populist political party Chega.

He published two novels, Montenegro in 2008, and A Última Madrugada do Islão ("The Last Dawn of Islam") in 2009, both with significant elements of female submission and homoeroticism.

Notably, in Montenegro, the word "intifada" is used four times: three times as a metaphor for strength and courage, and once when describing the act of sexual penetration.

The publication of A Última Madrugada do Islão, a novel about the death of Yasser Arafat, was suspended by the publishers, Chiado Editora, for its "incendiary potential", for its gratuitous references to Muhammad and the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

He is also a jurist-consultant of the Tax Authority (AT) where he was employed from 2011 to 2014.

In 2013, he finished his PhD thesis in public law from the Faculty of Law, University College Cork, Ireland, with a scholarship from the Portuguese national science foundation, the Foundation for Science and Technology.

In the thesis, he criticised "criminal populism" and "stigmatisation of minorities", and revealed concern about the "expansion of police powers".

He taught at the Autonomous University of Lisbon, from 2013 to 2019, and at NOVA, from 2016 to 2018.

He also had a column in the newspaper Correio da Manhã, the most widely read daily newspaper in the country, and, from 2014 to 2020, was a football commentator representing S.L. Benfica's point of view on the TV channel CMTV.

He is on leave from AT without pay since 2014.

In an interview in July 2017, in response to Ventura's statements about Portuguese Romani people, José Pinto Coelho (leader of the far-right National Renewal Party) wrote that "unfortunately, it seems, some of 'my people' are still in the parties of the system".

In another, Ventura said that he "vehemently repudiates the support of the far-right".

In the course of the same campaign, Ventura made several controversial statements about the gypsy community in the municipality of Loures, having become the target of a criminal complaint presented by the opposing candidate from the Left Bloc, headed by Fabian Figueiredo.

He is accused by Pinto Coelho of stealing the speech from the National Renewal Party.

In October 2017, Ventura stated that he was ready to dispute the leadership of the PSD, in case nobody else advanced against Rui Rio.

Ventura was affiliated with the Social Democratic Party (PSD) until 2018, having run for Mayor of Loures in 2017 as the PSD candidate.

He worked at Caiado Guerreiro, a prominent Portuguese law firm, from 2018 to 2019, and was a consultant at Finpartner, a tax advising firm, for 9 months until 2020.

He founded the political party Chega in April 2019 and six months later was elected to the Assembly of the Republic in the October 2019 legislative election.

In 2021, he ran for President of Portugal, coming third in the election with 11.9% of the votes.

In the 2024 Portuguese legislative election, Chega, under his leadership, received 18.1% of the vote, quadrupling its seat count to a final total of 48.

Ventura is the son of the owner of a small local bicycle shop, and an office worker.

He is a native of Algueirão, Sintra, a suburban locality in the Lisbon metropolitan area.

Unlike his peers, he was not raised in a religion because his parents wanted him to choose his own.

At 14, he became an enthusiastic Catholic, was baptised, and made his first communion and confirmation.

He wanted to be a priest and attended the Penafirme Seminary, the minor seminary of the Patriarchate of Lisbon, but said he did not continue his ecclesiastical formation because he fell in love.

He graduated in law from the Law Faculty of NOVA University Lisbon, with a grade of 19 out of 20.

In a 2019 interview to Diário de Notícias addressing the apparent contradictions between the issues raised in his PhD thesis and his later political views, Ventura said he has "always made a distinction between science and opinion" and called his thesis "scientific analysis, not ideological postulate".

On 9 April 2019, he founded the political party Chega, and three days later he joined the Basta! coalition for the 2019 European Parliamentary Elections.

Failing to elect any MEP, the coalition was dissolved on 30 July 2019.

He ran in the 2019 Portuguese legislative elections as the main candidate of Chega's electoral list for the Lisbon constituency; he was the party's first and single member to be elected to Parliament.

He claims to have positions that are "economically liberal, culturally nationalist and conservative in matters of customs".

André Ventura was elected a member of the Assembly of the Republic for the Lisbon constituency in the 2019 Portuguese legislative election.

He claims to be "the voice of common people" and an "anti-system politician".

In September 2020, he presented a proposal to decrease the number of deputies from 230 to 100, which was ruled unconstitutional by the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees.

In November, he renounces these proposals to accompany the PSD.

In January 2020, he proposed a 5 to 7.5% decrease in Members' salaries.

He provoked an outcry in Parliament in January 2020 by proposing that Joacine Katar Moreira, an Assembly member born in Guinea Bissau who said that museum items from Portugal's former colonies be returned, be similarly "returned to her country of origin".

At the 2020 convention of the Chega party, he passed a motion at the party's 2020 convention calling for the removal of ovaries from women who have abortions.

Facing protests, he then called for the motion to be dropped.

Ventura was present at a Zero Movement protest in front of the Assembly.