Parties are essential to the political organization of representativeness in democratic institutions, and for this reason, the state, with everyone’s taxes, must ensure their functioning through subsidies. However, most people don’t realize the scale of the public money involved. Let’s take the example of last Sunday’s legislative elections. Although the results are not finalized because the emigrant constituencies have yet to be counted (4 mandates in all), we can already get a fairly accurate idea. Party funding will amount to 26 million euros a year, divided between an amount related to the number of votes obtained and another amount associated with the number of deputies elected. In round figures, the PSD, which received 1.9 million votes, will receive a subsidy of 9 million euros; the PS, with 1.4 million voters, will receive 6.5 million; Chega, with 1.35 million voters, will receive 6.3 million; IL 1.4 million; Livre around 1 million; PCP 700,000 euros; BE 450,000; PAN 300,000; CDS 200,000; JPP 100,000; and, surprisingly, ADN, because it passed the 50,000 vote barrier, although it didn’t elect any MPs, will collect 278,000 euros.

That’s a lot, that’s a little, that’s what the existence of parties costs, and we want them to exist because they are essential to the functioning of democracy. However, because they emanate from society, it’s good that, once elected, particularly to parliament, MPs get it into their heads that when they run for office, albeit on a list with an order, this order must be respected. They must take up the positions for which they were elected. Voters don’t vote for lists; they vote for people on lists, and the order they stand is not insignificant. They vote for ideas and projects, but they have a face and not an abstraction. When we talk about the increasing detachment from politics on the part of the Portuguese, and take the case of the Region, where abstention was over 56% in Sunday’s elections, it is also a consequence of disenchantment with elected officials who promise one thing and do another, or who don’t promise but don’t do either.

Running for office is a serious act and, once elected, the position should only be vacated for reasons of force majeure, in this case, illness or taking on a government portfolio, precisely because the government emanates from the Assembly and executive positions can fall to its deputies. Moreover, there can be no excuse; MPs must take up their elected duties, and the law should not even allow them to run in concurrent elections, even partially, for the duration of their mandate. Everyone knows the story of the cat being sold for a hare.

In Diário Insular, editorial for May 23, 2025

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).