The End of the Portuguese Dream?

28 Jnuary 2021 (Wall Street International)* — According to certain foreign media, the results of the last election spelled the “end of the Portuguese dream”, meaning the fact that until now Portugal had been the only European country without significant far-right forces.

The truth, however, is that, over the past hundred years, the forces of the far right have held power for nearly fifty years.

For the rest of the time, from the revolution of 25 April 1974 to the present, they continued to exist now —illegally, now legally, and mostly a-legally— as a small resentful and nostalgic minority, with the occasional outward manifestations, whether violent or just sordidly insulting, and all that time acting as the inconsolable orphan pining for the father who was to return to them the gold they imagine having once possessed.

If there is a dream that came to an end, it was that of a clandestine, contained far right. In order to make sure that the dream is not followed by a nightmare, we need to analyze what happened in the election.

Given the circumstances, the presidential election was a marvel of organization, revealing a civic mindedness that may have come as a surprise even to the well-advised. The abstention rate was high, but still much lower than predicted. There were two major winners: the sitting President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the Socialist Party’s (PS) general secretary, António Costa. The former, because of how he made himself present; the latter, because of how he made himself absent.

In times of pandemic, this massive win promises to deliver the political stability the Portuguese have been longing for during the present tumultuous period of existential insecurity. Two half-winners followed, Ana Gomes (AG) and André Ventura (AV). AG proved that political dignity is possible, even under the most adverse circumstances.