Secularization and religious populism in Portugal

To understand the phenomenon of populism in Portugal we must look at its religious subtype. The de-privatization of religion allows the identification of two types of religious populism: modernophobia and Islamophobia. Building on this conceptualisation, this article analyses the religious populist discourse associated with the identity and cultural dimension and Portuguese right-wing parties such as Chega! and CDS-PP. Despite the differences between both in the way they resort to religious arguments in their political discourse, the current national political context follows the trend of religious de-privatisation, which may pave the way for religion and religious populism to increase their prominence in the public space and political agendas.