PORTUGAL: Anti-rights backlash

In June, Portugal experienced what was said to be its first contemporary far-right protest, as over 1,000 people gathered in the capital, Lisbon, with many holding signs bearing the slogan ‘Portugal is not a racist country’.

The far-right mobilisation came in backlash to a much larger series of BLM protests in Lisbon and other major cities that brought thousands to the streets earlier in June, with the police opting not to intervene, perhaps surprisingly given previous experiences of police brutality towards Black-led protests.