The final days of an election campaign that should be in full swing are drawing to a close. Not since the inglorious days of the First Republic has there been such a climate of political instability. Or at least that is the narrative some would have us believe. However, what is more certain is that it does not seem like we are in the middle of a campaign. Debates and rallies are broadcast on television, with interviews repeated and rehashed ad nauseam. In the streets, we hear songs on repeat, coming from vans disguised as frames for the faces of the candidates, who are overwhelmingly men. It should be something to get us excited. To make us think. To guide our thinking.

But it doesn’t, does it? How many of us truly feel the eve of the elections? How many people have given this campaign the importance it deserves? Have you read the parties’ programs? Do you know of any concrete measures?

In the Azores, with rare exceptions, the election campaign boils down, as it almost always does, to visits/meetings with television coverage and social media, something that was inconceivable to some until they realized that these are tools that, when used properly, can achieve enormous reach. Here on our islands, very few initiatives are left for a politician who wants to stand out and innovate. And in this case, it is not even necessary to stand out. The candidates are, in general, the same. Women seem to remain scarce in the Atlantic. It is almost as if we were a land of conservatives and machistas with high rates of domestic violence and social repression.

The AD has turned this campaign into a scenario of victimization diluted with lies. The election boils down to a kind of song festival final, where we are rooting for the best-dressed or the most charming candidate. It is regrettable to witness the decline of free thought and critical mass. We have been pushed into this miserable electoral act, where many people are caught between a rock and a hard place.

Along the way, the country has come to a standstill once again. Those in power are using this time to excuse their incompetence. Even in the autonomous regions, many voices behind the scenes are making excuses with the old Portuguese maxim: “that’s only for after the elections, and even then I don’t know, because then summer comes and you know how it is…”

You know, don’t you? The old trick of blackouts and dazzle. The populists are thirsty to take the palace. And the restless and unscrupulous palace dwellers, ready to hand them the keys. Along the way, legitimate causes and necessary struggles are lost. April 25th passes into May, and Zeca Afonso sings about the boy’s dreams from the provinces who just wanted a business to give to his children. There is no talk of rampant poverty. No one remembers the frightening figures in education and health care. The suits hide behind immigration and deportation, following the example of the Sun King on the other side of the ocean.

Here, too, we have failed completely on these issues. Commitments to the republic that could have been resolved have been left behind. There have been cases and minor problems. Still, there has been a failure to understand why the AD deputies, elected by the Azores constituency, allowed the imposition of a maximum ceiling of €600 for the purchase of a trip to the rest of the national territory, for example. But now it’s going to happen. Now Paulo Moniz and Francisco Pimentel intend to reverse this shameful situation imposed by their government. Until the election campaign, territorial cohesion was something superfluous. They were lucky with the government’s fall, which they facilitated. Now they can shout their discontent from the rooftops.

This week’s text is nothing more than an outburst from someone who has been through the world of politics, has fought for a reality of proximity, and is now, as always, going to the polls, seeing it as a right and a civic duty. I voted early. I voted correctly and in awareness of the need for Portugal to change course. I voted for the Left, believing that the Future is Now. A conscious vote that recognizes that it is people who carry out projects and that these projects cannot be a series of speeches that do not match practices, as it suits political leaders.

For everything you may identify as wrong in politics, voting is essential. Today, more than ever. But it would also be necessary to demand more from our political class. To force them to resume procedures and focus on ideas and issues, so that the other gentleman, with his rabbit and his troupe of miscreants, does not get there.

Politics needs to be empathetic, with a daily approach to people and their needs. No more pensioners should have to hear from a prime minister on the campaign trail that low pensions are the result of their contribution history.

Alexandra Manes is from Flores Island but lives on the island of Terceira in the 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 in the Azores, giving the diaspora and those interested in the current state of the 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).