The coalition government has already shown us that it likes to take advantage of quiet times to get the camel through the eye of the needle. After the episode of the segregation of crèches and children, approved during the summer period, there are the cases of December, drowned out by Christmas music.

On December 9, RTP Açores broadcast an allegedly great interview with the current President of the Regional Government. From a sumptuous room in the Palácio da Conceição, Bolieiro sat in an elegant armchair, sprawled out in a deeply decorated to speak to two journalists about the state of our archipelago. Although we find various opinions, comments, and even editorials that try to sell us that it was a very interesting speech, the truth is that anyone who took the time to watch everything that was said will quickly realize that Mr. President lived up to the school of the mythical Stinky Cat rant: he talked, talked, talked, and said nothing.

On the subject of rampant poverty, he shoved his weakest constituents under the carpet. The problems in the schools are the fault of the lazy technical assistants, whom he insinuates use fraudulent dismissals. With SATA, he says there’s no problem; let the taxpayers pay off the debt and let the rest be privatized. He takes advantage of this and privatizes a whole series of public companies. You only have to look at the good examples of CTT or EDP to see that privatization never fails. In health, the new hospital will be dealt with in a few years, perhaps in time for the next regional elections.

It was in the field of embarrassment that Bolieiro gave the most to those who watched his interview. Especially when he reaffirmed his coalition’s umbilical connection to the party of André Ventura’s party. They are the ones the PSD will be counting on in the Azores.

On the island of Terceira, last week’s episode was different. Far more tragic comic, to say the least. On December 10, Artur Lima and António Ventura announced via the local media that they had reached a consensus on three possible names of candidates for the Angra do Heroísmo City Council in the elections. From the outset, transmitting such information in the way it was, at the very least, dubious, not to say questionable, from the point of view of journalistic impartiality. But the plot thickened when, on the same day, it was discovered that the people who had supposedly been proposed not only didn’t know that they had been nominated by the coalition, nor did they have any interest or willingness to head the future list of local politicians.

Rather, what seems to have happened is the work of a magician in a top hat. For many months, António Ventura considered the most likely candidate, used three well-known names in the public square for those who vote in Angra. While people debated the validity of each of the three hypothetical of each of the three hypothetical nominations, public opinion was creating a sudden expectation of change. After all, they would be names that had not been foreseen. The coalition presented the prospect of renewal and a future!

But no. It was just a cheap magic move. Sooner or later, Ventura is expected to announce that he will have to take that dangerous risk and flesh out the manifesto since no one wants to accept the challenge. Does the Secretary of Agriculture want to be seen as a martyr, leaving his current post to the many appointments he has made over the years, to sacrifice himself on behalf of the City Council?

It’s an uncreative palace move that will hopefully pass between the raindrops of December. We live in fearful times when the backroom mechanisms of yesteryear are made public. To understand the choice of a putative mayor, it turns out that the strategy was to confuse public opinion, create chaos, and appear as a soldier of Sebastianism from the mists of the islands. Anyone paying attention will quickly realize that this is not very different from what is happening on the island of Corvo, a neighbor of my native Flores. A warning to navigators. It’s not enough to be able to write to have the right revenue for that small but noble municipality. Let’s be vigilant and vote with dignity. The municipal elections have already begun and with possible amorous intoxication.

Let’s hope we don’t end our meals with a glass of wine and a spoonful of glyphosate.

Alexandra Manes is from Flores Island but lives in Terceira Island, Azores. She is a regular contributing writer for several Azorean newspapers.

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)