There are no collective attributions of blame in Portugal | Opinion
Augusto Santos Silva spoke to André Ventura when he was in Parliament on his favorite topic: gypsies The deputy said that he did not understand that “the gypsy community is always so ready to be applauded by Parliament” and that “this ability to say yes to the gypsy community has to end up in Portugal”.
To the interruption, and reprimand, by the President of the Assembly of the Republic, all the benches reacted, with a standing ovation, with the exception of Chega. Nothing new here. André Ventura has this function of being the test by which it is verified what material is made by the other politicians. In this test Santos Silva passed and showed that it is made of good fabric.
I already had a pocket with Tiago Mayan in the presidential debates. What you couldn’t fix Ventura in the debate. It was half way there. Mayan got a lot of sympathy that night. Not like he had. Also the opposite: the big thing happens, we can also give value, not being able to, at the right moment of the answer to André, give value to someone.
The vast majority of voters disagrees with racist, xenophobic and neo-fascist ideas. Hopefully, it’s not the scope of the democratic game, Ventura then. May the leader of Chega be somehow put in order. It is mainly entertainment. It’s just that because it doesn’t lead anywhere. But for this wait André Ventura always has the attention of the OCS on him. And the Portuguese, who don’t want to lose sight of it, reciprocate with audiences and views. What’s more, OCS has given you visibility. The vicious cycle is created.
Our joy with the small problems of annoyance for Ventura is a warning that this is about to last. It would not be surprising that in the next few initiatives, the vote of the center was repeated to remove the fascist.
The traditional right is Chega’s first victim, but, and with the appeal to useful votes, it is not the only one. The dynamics of blackmail and threat, in which every citizen has to save the country from fascism, could be important again. With Chega there is always a logic of fear. Those who vote against the party, and what a perverse concept the anti-fascist vote is, are afraid of civilizational regression. Those who vote for the party are afraid of gypsies, afraid of immigrants and bandits. Here is another vicious cycle.
The extreme right can thrive in various political environments, but it is certain that liberal democracies are the most favorable. The answers are accurate and do not appear. Before the suggestion of the eternal return. In the Portuguese case, the orientation is for political tension to shift and move to the right from the center to the left/center to the radical left/right. And there stay.
In center politics, the problem is born and the only solution that the democratic system presents is the vote for the center left. The beneficiary, whether or not he wants to be, is the PS; life can be made easier with regard to its perpetuation in power, which, in turn, favors the growth of Chega. And this can be another vicious cycle.
Only left-wing social policies can fight fascism. Is this foolproof? Not. The Devil is already on the loose. There is also a nice solution. It is that, among us, there can be no fascist or racist parties. The law provides for its extinction. The Portuguese legislator was prudent.
Or we can continue, as we are focused on the small joys of Ventura’s setbacks like this one last Friday. Blurred, I say. This collective guilt we can have.
The author writes according to the new orthographic agreement