There are phrases and quotes that echo through the ages to warn us about the risks of complicit silence.
So it is with the famous warning of Martin Niemöller, the German Lutheran pastor who sympathized with Nazism, who became a critic and ended up in a concentration camp.
“First they came after the socialists, and I remained silent because I was not a socialist.
Then, they came after the unionists, and I remained silent because I was not a unionist.
Then, they came after the Jews and I remained silent, because I was not a Jew.
Now they have come to look for me, and there is no one left to defend me.”
This statement, sometimes mistakenly called a poem, illustrates how few far-right people operate and how a policy of division between people and hatred against others and those who are different inevitably leads to our own lack of protection.
In Portugal, the idea of red lines on the far right is a thing of the past. What we have today is mainly a right thematically cannibalized by an extremist agenda and which will, little by little, touch different sectors of society, always with the same logic: taking away rights.
It started with immigrants. Under the pretext of closing the “wide open doors”, the PSD made regular and documented immigration into our country almost impossible. Alternatively, they presented mechanisms, such as the green route, which have not had tangible results.
Meanwhile, the economy, which depends on our ability to attract labor, is stagnant, as will the country’s recovery work after the storms.
The focus now shifts to attacking the rights of trans people, especially younger people. Following the far-right’s well-known obsession with this topic – just remember the mixed bathrooms that never existed -, the PSDB decided to present a bill that once again treats trans people as sick, which makes it impossible to start a gender affirmation process before the age of 18 and eliminates the protection of the right to use one’s social name. In other words, it takes away rights and will irreparably delay the lives of young trans people in our country.
It is the old playbook that has been followed by all far-right parties in the world. With the difference that in our country it is being adopted by so-called center-right parties.
What will come next? Will it be the attack on workers with a labor package that offers nothing new other than more precariousness and low wages? Will it be women’s rights and reproductive rights like abortion?
Portugal does not need this policy of creating enemies. It is a reflection of weak politicians, whose only way to stay in power is through division. Yes, we need memory. And dignity for all people.
And we need above all not to remain silent in the face of indignity and the politics of hate and division. Otherwise, we may look around in a while and realize that there is no one left.
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