Led by Paulo Portas
of the vote in March 2002 general election
The anti-immigrant Popular party is a junior partner in the centre-Right Social Democrat Party government of Portugal.
Led by the media savy Paulo Portas, who is the founder of the newspaper ‘O Independente’, the Popular Party campaigns to limit integration and introduce a new special integration programme for second-generation immigrants from the former Portuguese African colonies because of what Portas describes as their ‘propensity for violence’. The Popular Party also wants to oblige children to sing the national anthem every day at school, strengthen abortion laws and lower the age at which juveniles can be sent to prison.
The Popular Party presently has 14 seats in the 230 seat parliament. It has control of the justice, social security and defence ministries. |
