‘It’s a really big threat’: Portuguese minorities on the rise of the far right

Evalina Dias: ‘It’s a threat for all people who are non-white in Portugal and it’s a threat for democracy.’ Photograph: Gonçalo Fonseca/The Guardian

For years, Evalina Dias has diligently worked to combat racism in Portugal. But just how much remains to be done was brought into sharp relief earlier this month, she says, as the far-right Chega party – led by a politician whose views have been described by one opponent as “often xenophobic, racist” – catapulted into the country’s top echelons of power.

“I couldn’t believe it,” says Dias, a board member with Djass, Portugal’s Association of African Descendants. “We had no idea that there were so many racists in Portugal. It’s like they were hidden.”