Politicians love drama and tragedy, especially when cycles are abruptly interrupted, as they are now.

When Carmo and Trinity fall (a Portuguese saying for when–everything goes South in English), everything goes backward, and the Portuguese, in turn, calmly go about their normal daily lives.

Then, when we get to the election campaign, there’s no reason to be alarmed; everything is de-dramatized, and two months is nothing in the life of the political cycle of a country that, in a normal situation, already moves at a snail’s pace.

Our Azorean politicians, wrapped up in the regional island bubble, love to make the national situation even darker to pretend that we live in a political paradise.

Just listen to what they’ve said about the current crisis and its repercussions in the region: the PRR will be delayed, financial aid to the PSOs will stop, there will be no money for the port of Lajes das Flores, the mobility subsidy will remain the same, the revision of the Regional Finance Law will be delayed and a continuous litany to make the cobblestones cry.

Now, two months of campaigning—and another month for the new government to take office—are not going to change our lives except for watching yet another of the painful spectacles that are our politicians’ election campaigns.

Drama and tragedy are just excuses for the shameful slow pace of governance here and there due to unprepared leaders, unsuccessful strategies, a powerfully bureaucratic administrative machine, and, in between, a lot of ill will.

The PRR is long overdue. Talk to entrepreneurs and gauge their degree of dissatisfaction with the program’s bureaucracy.

The same goes for incentives to all sectors, from companies to farmers and fishermen, not to mention the chronic late payment to suppliers.

One regional secretary has even come out desperate to say there is no money! So, it has nothing to do with early elections.

The galloping increase in waiting lists is not the fault of the elections; the delay in making decisions, such as privatizations, the extension of the runway at Pico or Faial, the new jail, the new boats, and so on, are long-standing stalemates that have nothing to do with elections.

And now we have the news of the delay in revising the Regional Finance Law, which we warned about a long time ago.

It’s not because of this electoral stoppage; it’s because of the laziness of both governments, who long ago irrationally decided to postpone the Summit because of the elections in Madeira.

As we can see, Madeira does not agree with the Azores’ joint proposal, and there is already talk that each region will present its proposal.

Wise voices have been calling attention to this for some time, but our politicians like to shut themselves away in the bubble of ill-prepared young advisors and ignore the experienced voices who have been at this for many years and know how things work.

Another two or three months of cycle change will not harm anything that lies between the Azores and Lisbon.

Everything has been hanging back for a long time.

And it’s the fault of those who love the karma of the late Albarran: “The tragedy, the drama, the horror…”.

Editorial Diário dos Açores (MARCH 15, 2025)

Osvaldo Cabral is the Executive Director of Diário dos Açores.

NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from various leading thinkers, writers, and editorial boards 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).