Blood and Honor is the name of a relatively unknown 2011 film, which retells a true story about the conquest of freedoms by English citizens at a time when monarchies were moving towards Absolute Power. Critics generally consider the film to be quite weak, as it adapts the historical component of the plot and focuses instead on action sequences full of blood and gratuitous violence. Blood and Honor was also one of the slogans of the poisonous Hitler Youth, patron of such gratuitous violence, giving rise to a worldwide organization that continues to follow the founding principles of neo-Nazism.

When you read these lines, most people will already know who I am talking about. On June 10, at nightfall, a group of actors from the theater company A Barraca was violently harassed by members of the Portuguese chapter of Blood and Honor, in a bloody campaign through the streets of Lisbon. Everything indicates that it was not a concerted attack, but merely the consequence of wolves being let loose in a country that considers a fascist party to be the second most important in its national elections, instead of declaring it unconstitutional, as it is.

The main consequence of this attack was a relatively serious injury caused to an actor who had done nothing wrong. But there is an underlying consequence, more harmful, more evident, if we take the trouble to read the enormous number of lines that have been written in the public square since then. The conscience of a country is not measured at the ballot box. It never has been, and even less so when the vast absolute majority that has governed Portugal for decades is abstention. The conscience of a country is measured by its response to moments of social tension, crisis, and emergency.

During the reign of Passos Coelho, when he sought to restore the absolutism of other eras, Portugal took to the streets, in groups and arm in arm. Endless demonstrations swept across the nation, forcing him to acknowledge that he had no place as emperor there. Those were different times.

Years later, the catastrophe that followed the passivity was Covidism. With the pandemic in full swing, and already living in a totally different country, much more Americanized and hooked on machines, Portugal revolted and built a new army of chalupas. Against socialist science, opponents of a Marxist Pope, enemies of corrupt democracy, ready to serve the first strong leader who could unite them. This was the consciousness of the new country that woke up to the reality of the attack on Adérito Lopes.

For a large part of the Portuguese population, the attack by the neo-Nazis of Sangue e Honra (Blood and Honor) did not happen, or if it did, it was staged, or even deserved. For a considerable portion of our population, it was nothing special, merely a reflection of latent hatred against the subsidy dependence of cultural agents. We also witnessed this reality in our Azores, with the responsible Secretariat insisting on statements that hide the truth with fragile sculptures of numbers that do not represent payments, but only intentions.

The attack by the neo-Nazis of Sangue e Honra (Blood and Honor) was motivated by hatred and impunity. By a prime minister who did not condemn them adequately. By a government that removed the chapter on internal security from the report that mentioned those far-right groups. By a coalition of the PSD and CDS that seeks to please the electorate of his cousin André Ventura, and is therefore afraid to speak out. The shamelessness of Portuguese men and women who vote for that violence and who do not mind looking at a pool of blood and seeing their own reflection in it. The attack by Sangue e Honra could well have been a concerted movement by the 1143. It could have been an organized march by the black shirts of Habeas Corpus. Or it could have just been a rally of brown shirts, led by men in dark blue suits, but flanked by security guards with grim expressions, ready to slap us at the slightest sign of democratic movement. In a party where Achilles’ only heel Achilles is a glass of water and a bout of heartburn, don’t forget.

Portugal is on the brink of disaster. The parties of the democratic arc seem ungovernable. Abstention, which still rules the country, may be irretrievable. The attack by neo-Nazis on our streets is symptomatic of a barefoot people who do not know that they are about to fall. Get organized. Protest. Shout. Talk to your neighbors and those you’ve never spoken to before. Don’t be afraid to stand your ground. Peace is a weapon as strong as or stronger than violence. You just have to know how to use it. If, not so long ago, we managed to overthrow Passos and his lackeys, we must now bring down his symbolic sons, André and Luís. Before it’s too late, and we end up in a hospital bed reading offensive comments about our simple act of resistance, which was to breathe.

A hug to Adérito and Maria do Céu. To all of A Barraca. We are still here. It is not yet the end of the world. It is just a little late, but it is now clear that the struggle and resistance will have to take place in the streets. Mainland Portugal, the Azores, and Madeira have united today in demonstrations for culture as a way of dismantling fascism, which has lost all sense of shame.

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, providing the diaspora and those interested in the current state of the Azores with insight into the diverse opinions on some of the archipelago’s key 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).