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- With God on their side: the religious populism of Bolsonaro and VenturaPublication . Zúquete, José Pedro; Guimarães, Gabriel; Pimenta, DavidThis paper discusses the relationship between populism and religion by focusing on a comparative analysis of Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Portugal’s André Ventura. The article describes each respective leader’s individual path and personal relationship with religion, the ways that each expresses and performs religiosity, each claims a special mission bestowed by the divine, and the parallels between and differences in each leader’s use of religion for political causes. This comparative study emphasizes the role religion plays in each figure’s leadership as an identity and civilizational marker while both Bolsonaro and Ventura invoke religion in depicting their political activities as a combat against a variety of evil forces; however, this comparative study casts doubt on oversimplified assertions that exclude the power of actual religious belief in both cases under analysis.
- Portugal’s New Kid in Town: the Populism of ChegaPublication . Zúquete, José Pedro; Pimenta, DavidIn just five years (2019-2024), Chega has emerged as a dominant force, positioning itself as the most successful radical right-wing populist party in Portuguese politics. Drawing on a discursive approach to populism and through a longitudinal research of primary and secondary sources, this research examines the populism of Chega — with a special focus on the key role played by its leader, André Ventura. It looks at strategy, as well as the prevalence of common themes in the verbal and non-verbal discourse of its leader: ‘the people’, and ‘the elites’ as well as references to demography, democracy and religion. This study contributes to the broader literature on populism by offering a detailed empirical analysis of Chega’s discourse and political practices, ultimately shedding light on the party’s alignment with the radical right-wing contemporary populist movement and its growing influence on Portuguese democracy.