The title of this reflection could have been different and less incisive, but it has to do with an irritation that grows inside me, and I know many other people these days. Conservatism has returned to take center stage in how the world looks at everyday life. The idea that we must return to a time when we were happy has become normalized. We’ve lost the dream of being better and just want to be what we once thought we were. If this is happening worldwide with violence emanating from the power center of Washington and the oligarchy that the White House gave birth to, this problem is not new in Portugal. In fact, it’s one of the oldest traditions of the tuga. Being conservative is almost as Portuguese as listening to fado in Alfama, eating tripe in Porto, or drinking a poncha at dusk in Funchal.

For centuries, many authors have discussed the maritime condition of being Portuguese. They considered us adventurers capable of crossing seas and discovering lands. They glorified the indomitable spirit of a Tuga that never existed to make our nation a heritage that deserves a capital N and State honors. I have many doubts and questions about all this, culminating in the propaganda policy of António Ferro and Oliveira Salazar, which is still very visible today in the congresses of parties like the PSD or the more recent and no less unfortunate Liberal Initiative.

The Portuguese conservative was born from this idea of ancient glories and exclusive conditions for our people. But, from that unfortunate construction site, the work expanded beyond the political-ideological horizon. Let’s not forget that Pedro won the battle for Liberalism, but Miguel’s Absolutism won the war for the kingdom’s soul.

Today, we find the conservative on both the left and the right, almost always in the center. We come across his way of looking at the world in the square of Fátima, at the Sanctuary of Santo Cristo, or at Senhora do Monte. We see that he has infected the headquarters of Opus Dei, the palaces of the Freemasons, the taxi drivers of Bairro Alto, and the taverns of Tia. We can see the presence of the conservative in the salons of Cascais and in the little rooms of Ribeira, both in the little bet that goes to the Golegã fair with her uncles and in the fishmonger who shouts out the price of sea bream, between commas and swear words.

In the old communists of yesteryear, who fought so hard for the equality of a people and for the equality of a people and the communion of an ideal, we see people who now react with homophobia to someone’s simple desire to be free. In the blue blood, who claim to be agents of social change, we shouldn’t be so surprised to realize that what they’re interested in is returning to times of Bafia tradition, where people knelt at the feudal lord’s door and the feudal lord, and where the only thing that mattered was having a few bucks for half a glass of wine and a bullfight.

Thanks to these conservatives, the country suffers the deep scourge of incompetence. With no rebellion or a desire to change for the future, we have produced politicians of very poor quality who rely on populism to survive but who cannot envision a strategy beyond protecting their skin. This is why they cling to internal polling stations with favors and proposals. It is the reason that votes in support of Javier Milei are consensual among rich landowners and micro-entrepreneurs. And it is in this mentality that the conditions are met for mercenaries with no morals to gather around a fascist party that despises the poor and the unfortunate and aspires to be king sitting on a throne built by stolen suitcases and other far more dangerous crimes.

The conservative was in the comment boxes of social networks protecting the police officers who have now been accused of sabotaging the murder of Odair Moniz. He raised his arms to defend those who beat up Ademir Moreno outside a nightclub in the city of Horta. He defended the dismissal of breastfeeding women. It has joined forces to make victims of domestic violence forget in defense of lies about foreign crime. And it’s on the right and left, don’t forget. Because some want to extinguish the condition of transsexuals because they don’t understand it. Some young people wear the word emancipation on their chests but don’t mind slapping their girlfriends if they get smart with them. People who carry carnations in their hands, while in their hearts of hearts, believe that what is needed is a strong hand to command these kids who sit in the middle of the road protesting about the end of the world.

The conservative hates equally and doesn’t realize, or pretends not to realize, that the time will come when they will go for him too. First, the transsexual girl, then the homosexual, then the black man, and the gypsy, the activist, and the feminist. But the day will also come when the Portuguese oligarchs and the Venturas they finance will take the reins of this country if we do nothing to stop them. And it will be on that day that the little conservative, who doesn’t even have the money to sit in the inauguration, will also be placed with the group of the persecuted. Then it will be too late.

Remember to remind those around you of this. Being conservative is a mistake we cannot afford in this day and age. Let’s honor our past, historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists, but not stop building the future. After all, we don’t need to make Portugal great again. We need to make Portugal what it never was, starting with us.

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