Articles
| Open Access | Collaboration and Conflict: The Complex Relationship Between Activist Groups and Political Parties in Portugal’s Climate Movement
Carlos Fernandes , Student of Political Sciences Studies University of Lisbon, Lisbon, PortugalAbstract
This study explores the complex relationship between activist groups and political parties in shaping the climate movement in Portugal. Through a combination of qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews with key stakeholders from environmental organizations, political parties, and governmental institutions, this research examines the dynamics of resistance and collaboration that characterize the climate activism landscape in the country. While political parties have provided institutional frameworks for environmental policies, activist groups have consistently challenged governmental inertia and pushed for more radical climate action. The findings reveal that the relationship between these two groups is often characterized by tension and compromise, but also synergy in certain instances, particularly in the context of youth-led movements like Fridays for Future. The paper discusses how these dynamics impact the effectiveness of the Portuguese climate movement in influencing national policy and contributing to international climate advocacy.
Keywords
Climate Movement, Activist Groups, Political Parties
References
Abajo-Sanchez, Camille. 2022. Devenir activiste pour le climat: Formation à la désobéissance civile comme processus de socialisation chez des jeunes militants d’Extinction Rebellion à Paris. Educação, Sociedade and Culturas 62: 1–18. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Abizadeh, Arash. 2005. Does Collective Identity Presuppose an Other? On the Alleged Incoherence of Global Solidarity. American Political Science Review 99: 45–60. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Amnå, Erik, and Joakim Ekman. 2015. Standby Citizens: Understanding non-Participation in Contemporary Democracies. In Political and Civic Engagement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Edited by Martyn Barrett and Bruna Zani. London: Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group, pp. 96–108. [Google Scholar]
Baer, Hans A. 2021. Climate Change and Capitalism in Australia: An Eco-Socialist Vision for the Future. London: Routledge. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Balser, Deborah B. 1997. The Impact of Environmental Factors on Factionalism and Schism in Social Movement Organizations. Social Forces 76: 199–228. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Blings, Steffen. 2020. Niche Parties and Social Movements: Mechanisms of Programmatic Alignment and Party Success. Government and Opposition 55: 220–40. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Bowman, Benjamin, Pooja Kishinani, Sarah Pickard, and Marion Smith. 2023. Radical Kindness: The Young Climate Activists Transforming Democracy. In Youth Political Participation—Youth Knowledge #29. Brussels: Council of Europe and European Commission, pp. 15–33. [Google Scholar]
Campos, Ricardo, and João Carlos Martins. 2024. Ontological insecurity and urgency as a political value. Discourses of youth climate activists in Portugal. Globalizations 21: 1180–96. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Carbonaro, Giulia. 2023. A ascensão da extrema-direita na política portuguesa. Euronews, August 17. Available online: https://pt.euronews.com/2023/08/17/a-ascensao-da-extrema-direita-na-politica-portuguesa (accessed on 25 February 2025).
Carvalho, Anabela, Maria Fernandes-Jesus, Carla Malafaia, and Mehmet Üzelgün. 2022. The Climate Movement in Portugal: JUSTFUTURES Project Report. Braga: University of Minho. [Google Scholar]
Chironi, Daniela, Donatella della Porta, and Chiara Milan. 2024. Chapter 1: The Political Participation of Young People in Times of Crisis: A Framework for Analysis. In Handbook on Youth Activism. Edited by Jerusha Conner. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 140–53. [Google Scholar]
Cunha, Manuela Ivone, and Antónia Lima. 2010. Ethnography and the public sphere: Summarizing questions. Etnográfica 14: 61–69. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Della Porta, Donatella. 2020. How Social Movements Can Save Democracy: Democratic Innovations from Below. Cambridge: Polity Press. [Google Scholar]
Della Porta, Donatella, and Dieter Rucht. 1995. Left-Libertarian Movements in Context: Comparing Italy and West Germany, 1965–1990. In The Politics of Social Protest: Comparative Perspectives on States and Social Movements. Edited by Craig Jenkins and Bert Klandermans. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 229–72. [Google Scholar]
Diógenes-Lima, Juliana, Sara Pinheiro, Joana P. Cruz, and Carla Malafaia. 2023. If Not Even the School Listens to Us…: Echoes of Climate Justice on the Ground. Journal of Social Science Education 22: 4. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Emerson, Robert M., Rachel Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw. 1995. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar]
Espírito-Santo, Paula, Marco Lisi, and Bruno Ferreira Costa. 2018. Party Membership and Activism in a New Democracy: Evidence from the Portuguese Case. Dados 61: e165. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Falzon, Mark-Anthony. 2009. Introduction: Multi-Sited Ethnography: Theory, Praxis and Locality in Contemporary Research. In Multi-Sited Ethnography: Theory, Praxis and Locality in Contemporary Research. Edited by Mark-Anthony Falzon. Farnham: Ashgate. [Google Scholar]
Fernandes-Jesus, Maria, Elvira Cicognagni, and Isabel Menezes. 2014. Civic and political participation: Young people of Brazilian origin in Portugal/Participação cívica e política: Jovens imigrantes brasileiros/as em Portugal. Psicologia e Sociedade 26: 572–82. [Google Scholar]
Fernandes-Jesus, Maria, Maria Luísa Lima, and José-Manuel Sabucedo. 2020. “Save the climate! Stop the oil”: Actual protest behavior and core framing tasks in the Portuguese climate movement. Journal of Social and Political Psychology 8: 426–52. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Fernandes-Jesus, Maria, and Raquel Gomes. 2020. Multiple Players, Different Tactics, a Shared Goal: Building Bridges and Political Agency While Fighting Against Oil and Gas Drilling. Frontiers in Communication 5: 33. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Flor, Aline. 2023. Estudantes voltam a uma nova greve pelo clima: Estão inquietos com o custo de vida. Público, March 2. Available online: https://www.publico.pt/2023/03/02/azul/noticia/estudantes-voltam-nova-greve-clima-estao-inquietos-custo-vida-2040873 (accessed on 25 February 2025).
Garcia, Ana, Dora Rebelo, Juliana Diógenes-Lima, Maria Fernandes-Jesus, and Carla Malafaia. 2025. Intersectionality in youth climate activism as educational practice: Political, pragmatic, and pedagogical dimensions. Frontiers in Education 9: 1491387. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Gold, Tomás, and Ann Mische. 2024. Channeling Antipartisan Contention: Field Structures and Partisan Strategies in a Global Protest Wave 2008–2016. American Journal of Sociology 129: 1660–1719. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Article Statistics
Downloads
Copyright License
Copyright (c) 2025 Carlos Fernandes
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain the copyright of their manuscripts, and all Open Access articles are disseminated under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC-BY), which licenses unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is appropriately cited. The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, and so forth in this publication, even if not specifically identified, does not imply that these names are not protected by the relevant laws and regulations.