In Britain we may have election fever but Europe is going to the polls too — with the far right predicted to do well across the continent in elections to the European Parliament from June 6-9.

With our sister papers Junge Welt of Germany and Arbejderen of Denmark, we compiled a series of articles looking at the nature of the far-right threat across different European countries, of which this is the fifth. We would like to thank Junge Welt for organising the series and translation.

Carmela Negrete: After eight years of a left-wing coalition in power, Luis Montenegro and his cabinet took office as Portugalʼs new centre-right government on April 2. However, Montenegroʼs camp fell well short of the required majority of 116 seats. Why were there early elections in the first place?