The Regional Government of the Azores, meeting on December 4, 2024, decided to approve the Regional Regulatory Decree for the support system to be granted to cultural agents working in the archipelago. A few days later, on the 11th of the same month, the Assembly, which is dominated by the parties of the same executive, decided to approve a proposal to once again allow glyphosate use in our region’s public spaces. In between, the president of that parliament said in a voice that ranged from pouting to irritation and great sadness: “You can’t even vote in this house anymore…”.

These are seemingly unconnected three incidents but come together in a common reality. As we know it, the Assembly and the government established by it no longer represent the Azores and its people.

Let’s start with culture. Although it is not yet public, the allegedly approved decree will be a regulation proposed and worked on internally, which will control and regulate all the work of the arts sector in the archipelago over the next few years. It so happens that the various proposals put forward in dialogue with the cultural agents were systematically rejected, as they did not meet basic requirements for the dignity of this vital sector. We already know the disregard that the coalition has for cultural workers. The words of Mr. Machado (assembly member) from a few months ago. But now they have gone and ignored the will of civil society, going ahead with a decree that defies everyone and everything. If there were any doubts, it’s enough to read some of the recent manifestos of indignation published by personalities linked to island culture. What radiates from the Silveira e Paulo Palace in Angra do Heroísmo doesn’t differ from what emanates from the Paços do Concelho in Ponta Delgada. The problems keep piling up. A regulation is necessary. But it has to be done with the people who know it contributing to it. Instead, the autocratic regime persists in opposition to professional opinions. Is this yet another law made by bureaucrats that bureaucrats can see and pass without the people’s vote? Time will tell.

The one that has already been approved is the proposal by Mr. Pacheco’s party to re-fish carcinogenic products into our lives. Many people think it’s an exaggeration to treat certain hate speech as if it were poison. Real life tends to surpass fiction. The toxic, in this case, goes far beyond words. It’s about cleaning out old warehouses to sell off an endless stock of a virus that will only profit those who support that ideology of rage.

The debate around glyphosate was symptomatic. Vasco Cordeiro tried to speak calmly and coherently, trying to teach the bad students. In vain, he ran against the windmills to show that this astonishing measure had to be rethought before it was too late for all of us. He lost the battle against irrationality and professional mediocrity, and, worst of all, he wasted his time arguing against those who don’t know the difference between a packet of Bayer Roundup and a bottle of Roundup and a bottle of Bairrada red sparkling wine.

While the speeches on chemicals lasted, poison oozed out of some parliamentary seats and spread across the floor of democracy, weakening every person trying to work there. The comments and asides grew in tone and lowered in level. The Assembly shook as if shaken by a divine force, screaming in vain, looking for deputies capable of waking up to say no.

The proposal was approved. The Azores were set back years in their environmental race, which had already started late. A recent public petition has shown that, once again, this is not the people’s will. It is the will of a group of people who, to stay there, have negotiated with toxicity. We have lost all of us. So said the President of the Assembly, indirectly. Over the last few years, Luís Garcia has tried to calm the poisonous winds that blow in there. With a few mistakes along the way, he has shown that he has enough common sense not to fall into some of the traps set for him. But in this last plenary session in 2024, the president sighed deeply. Unable to control the playground. Impotent in the face of so many screaming tavern-goers.

Those in attendance will have felt solidarity with Luís Garcia. We are tired and weary. Sick and tired. And we don’t see ourselves there. We need more culture to teach our parliament’s ladies and gentlemen what makes up poison. We need more dignity. We need much more than we have.

Indeed, the year 2024 ends with a disastrous plenary at all levels. We are left with the impetus to show resilience, sign the petitions, shout that they don’t see themselves there, and not miss the target, fooled by populists. Change for the better is urgent.

Happy Holidays!

Alexandra Manes is from Flores Island but lives in Terceira Island, Azores. She is a regular contributing writer for several Azorean newspapers. She is a political and cultural activist and has served in the Azorean Parliament.

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)