EUROPEAN TRADE UNION DIALOGUE TRADE UNIONS AND RIGHT-WING POPULISM IN EUROPE Country Study Portugal Hermes Augusto Costa and Raquel Rego April 2023 This study offers a brief analysis of the relationship between trade unionism and far-right populism in Portugal, which is tenuous but has potential to grow. The authors argue that the origins of trade unionism and its historically consolidated democratic values (emancipation, solidarity, and legitimised collective representation) are the very antithesis of populism. In the Portuguese case, i.e., in a context marked by a labour relations system dominated by traditional union structures, such as the Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses (CGTP; General Confedera­tion of the Portuguese Workers) and the União Geral de Trabalhadores (UGT; General Union of Workers) that were first established in the 1970s during the period of democratic transition. The populist“calls” are relatively recent and have to do with the way in which the party composition of the country’s parlia­ment was reshaped after 2019. We are thus witness ­ing a“populist agenda”, seemingly imposed from the outside in a far-right partisan logic targeting the very heart of the trade union movement, whose aims are obvious but also murky and perilous. INTRODUCTION In order to analyse populism’s“intrusion” into trade unionism, we first look at the latter’s histori ­cal legacy and its noblest missions. Ultimately, however, to invoke that heroic past is to be faced with the multiple signs of the crisis affecting trade unionism, notably in Europe(the cradle of trade unionism), where that crisis has been felt for sever­al decades. In our view, the populist projects have emerged in part as a reaction to manifestations of the trade union crisis, often with the aim of serving as a political ­alternative. Similarly, the perception of the problems currently affecting trade unionism cannot be dissociated from a reassessment of trade union power resources. The intensity and the timing of those populist forays is largely determined by the strength or weakness of the resources available. In the third part of our text we offer a brief character­isation of the Portuguese labour relations system and a description of the key trade union actors. Actors in the Portuguese labour relations system are histori­cally on the side of working-class values and com­mitted to a left-wing agenda. The advent of the political party Chega (CH; Enough!) is the latest instance of a populist notion taking root on Portuguese soil. It is addressed in section four, where the party’s ideological tenets are briefly pre ­sented and a description of the connections between Chega and Movimento Zero (Movement Zero), an emerging inorganic movement that has made a few public appearances, especially during demonstra­tions organised by police and other security forces. Movimento Zero is, in fact, a virtually“faceless” phe­1