“I appreciate those who assert themselves with urbanity, discuss in a civilized way, does not insult, and not those who think they need to be rude, to despise their opponents, to accuse the majority of Portuguese people of not knowing how to choose their representatives. (…) I appreciate anyone who wants to unite us, help us face challenges and difficulties together. No who divides us into pure and unclean, into good and evil, into saints and sinners. And by the way, you believe that the majority are impure, evil and sinful.”
It was thus that two months ago, before the second round of the presidential elections, PSD leader Leonor Beleza, a party in which she has been active since the dawn of 1974, explained why she would vote for António José Seguro and not for his opponent.
Opponent whom, without even naming him, he described as someone who is voluntarily rude, who does not know how to debate in a civilized way, who does not respect or value all Portuguese people, who “despises and condemns everyone who serves our country”; a radical who uses “noise as a political weapon” and accuses the Portuguese of “not having known how to choose their representatives for 50 years, since we have had that freedom.”
It is a repugnant description, which makes a point of highlighting the difference between post-1974 political freedom and the dictatorial regime that preceded it, and the fact that André Ventura, by vilifying all politicians elected in democracy, thus issuing a certificate of incapacity to those who elected them.
A courageous and indignant description that, on the face of it, contrasts with the non-position of his party, whose leadership decided not to choose between the two candidates, thus sending the message that it meant so much to him.
A description in keeping with the image of a woman to whom, often the first in a world then of only men and often very brutish, they were given the epithet of “iron lady” at a certain point; a woman who in 2018, in a PSD initiative for young people, encouraged listeners to “combat intensely” those who “oppose human rights, peace and democracy”, proclaiming: “I am not prepared and I do not want to have to reconcile myself with those who have differences on this level with me”.
However, it is this same woman, the one who describes Ventura as a dangerous extremist who chooses stupidity, and urges young people to fight against what he, a fervent supporter of Trump and the Putinist Orbán and nostalgia for Salazar, represents, the woman who, in interviews with DN in 2005 and 2016, warned of the “risks of regression” in the field of human rights and warned of the need to continue fighting because “you can’t rest, you can always go back”now appearing as the first name of a joint PSD and Chega ticket for the Council of State, which includes André Ventura.
After all, it appears that she will be prepared to reconcile herself with those who show, vis-à-vis her, such significant differences.
In addition to the disappointment that this concession by Leonor Beleza represents for many, many who admired not only her fiber but also her path as a proud feminist — one of her first jobs was at the then Commission on the Status of Women, today the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality, having participated in the revision of the Civil Code of the dictatorship to eliminate its patriarchal character —, note the symbolic aspect of seeing someone who founded the PSD with Sá Carneiro thus giving a hand to Ventura’s party.
Because if it was already more than evident that the “no is no”, Montenegro’s solemn electoral oath, it was worthless; that, incredibly, not even the fact that Chega had posted posters calling him corrupt (posters against which, considering them slanderous, he even filed a precautionary measure) and that Ventura having dubbed the PSD a “political prostitute” prevented the leaders from understanding each other and the Government from promoting extreme right-wing issues, from immigration and “insecurity” to “gender ideology”, Seeing Beleza agreeing to appear, on a list, shoulder to shoulder with Ventura is certification that the castle has really fallen.
Well then, Cavaco Silva, in your latest opinion pieceto claim that Chega is “a political force devoid of political credibility”, whose distinguishing mark is the rhetoric of confrontation and the theatrical speech of hate, insult, slander and lies”. The former President of the Republic may well certify that, “having met Sá Carneiro” and “studied his texts on the exercise of power in Portugal”, is “absolutely convinced that he would fight with all his strength against the speech and ideas of the Chega leader”.
Leonor Beleza, the Leonor Beleza who account that in 1974 Sá Carneiro appeared to him and asked “we are going to found a party, do you want to come?”, he let his hands fall into this fight. And with so much aim and bad luck when, in Hungary, the center right has just overthrown one of Ventura’s idols. How sad.
Use: You toothe Latin expression used in the title, means “until you”, or “also you”.
Journalist
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