For some time now, it has become customary to use the term “atypical” to describe the twelve months describe the twelve months that traditionally precede a New Year’s Eve. And 2024 was no exception. It really was an unusual year.

International conflicts of great importance to the rest of the world continued, now accompanied by the re-election of one of the most dangerous autocrats to take power in recent years in the United States. January begins with his inauguration ceremony and his first measures, among which is the promised deportation of thousands of people, some of them Azorean, as far as the competent authorities have been able to ascertain.

I would like to send a direct message to the offices responsible: get ready, because this year it will be necessary to reinforce the strategy of welcoming those who return. It will be essential to redouble the work of citizenship to combat the xenophobia and radicalization that we are seeing all over the world.

In world politics, the extremist debacle has continued, with moderate forces in Germany and France forces in Germany and France losing what little ground they had left to the right, and especially to the right and, above all, to the extreme right of a markedly fascist nature. Thanks to Macron’s leadership weaknesses, the only alternative that seems viable in France is that of Le Pen, the daughter of hatred.

All that remains for Olaf Scholz is to pack his bags and pray that the AfD doesn’t take over his seat. Otherwise, the Reichstag is in danger of going up in flames once again. All this is to get us to the big international event of 2024. Elon Musk and the rest of the oligarchs have come out of the closet. Over the last ten years, a force of billionaires and heads of big business in arms, technology, and social destruction have been preparing and taking up strategic positions as ideologues of the disruptive forces of the political extreme. In the final months of the year we left, Musk finally said what he had come for. He wants to destroy democracy and build a new regime where Money is God, the poor serve the rich, and social survival is a privilege for the subservient. Milei, in Argentina, is already following this philosophy, with a “success” that the Liberal Initiative wants to replicate in Portugal.

In our country, there have been many turbulent events. The departure of António Costa, for reasons already forgotten and never proven, led to Montenegro’s being elected, albeit with a sizable minority, leaving him hostage to parliamentary agreements. Thus, the country went through the rest of the year at half speed, with new upheavals in health, education, culture, and housing. Prices are rising, the tortoises in the Tagus are clamoring for Moedas to leave, but the PSD is, in fact, installed in the three seats of government in Lisbon, Ponta Delgada, and… Well, things didn’t work out quite like that in Funchal. Albuquerque spent half the year dodging the issue while he snoozed on his seaside vacation, and the island of Madeira was burning. Caught in the middle of the smoke raised by André Ventura’s servants, the PSD-Madeira will now face the biggest political crisis in its history without what to do, as he has already attested in successive unfortunate interviews in recent days.

2025 will be the year these problems will have to be resolved, as well as the municipal issues in general. That will be the time to move forward with a few more construction projects. Promises of major events, eternal investments, and never-before-seen collaborations. In municipal markets that were left undone, collective redundancies were only avoided by the strength of the citizens’ movement. Ports that were poorly built or even imagined. All this is fado that is forgotten at this time. After all, it’s election time, the campaign has already begun, and António Ventura has already ironed his suit and dreams of turning the historic center of Angra do Heroísmo into a permanent agricultural fair.

Here in the archipelago, the major events in the year 2024 were too much for the following lines. The first thing that stands out is the increase in social discrimination, with the recommendations approved regarding access to nurseries in the Azores. Thus, the most striking thing about 2024 in the Azores was cementing the regime pact between the PSD and Chega. We can’t look back on this year without highlighting that unavoidable fact. The coalition that governs the region no longer has much of the CDS in it. Much more unites Bolieiro and Pacheco than what was once said to separate them. This reality will continue until 2025 when it is useful to bring down the Azorean government, as happened in the last legislature here in the Aozres and now in Madeira. Ignoring this reality will destroy our democracy, and yet it seems that this is what many of those who vote for the PSD and their peripheral allies want.

2025 is going to be an atypical year. We can already see it. The hope is that more people start questioning the oppression we’ve seen here and there. I never tire of saying that we, as a community, have the strength to force change. That’s why my wishes for the new year are not for success and prosperity. They are for unity, free-thinking, and struggle. A lot of struggle, which is what we need.

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).