Politics is a fertile ground for hypocrisy.
Even international theses confirm political incoherence in all societies, causing popular discredit and demotivation, with consequences for electoral participation.
One of them states that hypocrisy is considered an essential tool in the game of power, which politicians can use according to their needs and goals for success.
Machiavelli explicitly states the advantages of hypocritical action: countless “promises have been rendered irritable and vain by the unfaithfulness of princes, and he who, with more perfection, knew how to act like a fox, did better”.
For those of us who have been following politics in our region for almost half a century, there is no shortage of almost daily stories of political hypocrisy in all parties, governments, and parliaments.
I’ll give you two examples from the last few days.
António Costa’s government of the Republic, one of the worst for our Autonomy, budgeted 9 million euros for the PSOs in the Azores.
Its two disastrous Secretaries of State—Pedro Nuno Santos and João Galamba—never launched the public tender for these PSOs, which cost more than 9 million euros.
The Government of the Azores and the PSD-Azores protested loudly, as was their duty, calling the whole process “incompetent” and accusing the government of the Republic of wanting to harm the Azores.
Now, Luís Montenegro is presenting his budget for next year, and the same 9 million euros have been slipped in!
Absolute silence from those who protested before but plenty of noise from PS MPs, now in opposition.
Another example: Caixa Geral de Depósitos, a terrible bank at serving customers, has announced a reduction in services at its branches, damaging several municipalities on our islands and forcing people to travel quite a distance for face-to-face services.
Through its leader, the PS in the Azores took advantage of the case and, among many other accusations, described the measure as “a step backward for the country’s territorial cohesion.”
This same concern was not seen in 2017, when the same CGD closed 70 branches across the country, including in some Azorean municipalities – much worse than reducing services – and when the opposition parties at the time called on Minister Mário Centeno to explain, he blamed the bank’s management criteria.
No politician in Portugal today, especially in the Azores, doesn’t have glass ceilings.
Their political impetus forces them into the greatest contortions, some even Machiavellian.
Turning this into a virtue is the ultimate in hypocrisy.
There is only one appeal left to ordinary citizens: spare us such roles!

Osvaldo Cabral
Editorial Diário dos Açores 27-10-2024

NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from various leading thinkers and writers from the Azores to give the diaspora and those interested in the current Azores a sense of the significant opinions on some of the archipelago’s issues.

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL)