The Constitutional Court (TC) stated on Monday that it has no "pending request to ban" political parties, after a judge from that court confirmed that the body had received a request for the dissolution of Chega. The TC issued a brief note to the Луса news agency to clarify the situation, following a news story disseminated by the news agency.
In Macau, Judge Maria Benedita Urbano confirmed that the TC received a request for the dissolution of Chega, filed by lawyer António Garcia Pereira. The judge indicated that the judges have not yet had "time to decide" on the case, after lamenting the "excessive number of requests for constitutional review" and the "fad of preventive review" of legislative proposals. Urbano also stressed that it is "very difficult" to determine whether a political party is fascist.
The TC is the only body in Portugal with the power to declare the dissolution of a political movement, but it can only do so after a request from the Public Prosecutor's Office. In February, Garcia Pereira reinforced the request to the Public Prosecutor's Office to activate the legal mechanisms to dissolve Chega, arguing that the party violates the Constitution, after having already submitted an initial complaint in October 2025.
António Garcia Pereira's complaint invokes links between Chega and the neo-Nazi group "1143" and a ruling for the removal of André Ventura's posters against Roma people during the presidential election campaign. The lawyer also points to irregularities in the party's governing bodies, with the TC confirming in May 2025 as invalid the elections of Chega's national bodies in 2023 and 2024.
