At the time, in 2020, Visão magazine featured António Costa on its cover, quoting a supposed response from the then-prime minister in an interview about the continuity of his absolute majority government. If I hadn’t passed by there after that, I would have believed that all hell had broken loose, given the intensity of the opposition’s response at the time. Even today, a quick Google search reveals the heated stance of the CDS-PP and PSD, whose leaders remain unchanged. Needless to say, the stance of the liberal populists and Salazarists was irrational. The outrage was abominable. Rivers of ink flowed in newspapers across the country. Cries of strangulation by the socialist dictatorship echoed in the streets and avenues of our little country by the Atlantic. And Portugal trembled.

António Costa was overthrown before the end of his term. The reasons, true or false, that led to this event are well known. I will not waste time discussing the validity of the investigation. No one cares about that today. Truth be told, the result was quite positive for the former prime minister on a personal level and for the extreme right and far-right opposition on a political level. The rest no longer seems to matter.

Meanwhile, Montenegro was elected twice without a majority, mirroring a country that does not know what it wants and reinforcing the weight of the ill-informed and abstention. The main political actors on that right-wing bench remain the same, if we discount those who defected from the PPM, the PSD, and, mainly, the CDS to the Salazarists’ benches. Those who sat indignantly against Costa in 2022 were Nuno Melo and Hugo Soares. The same people who, a few days ago, signed agreements of very weak constitutional validity to destroy the entire basis of Portuguese legislation on the proper integration of the peoples who visit us. They signed with their supposed adversaries, of course.

It was in an agreement between people who needed to look up the word “gentleman” in the dictionary that the new legislation on immigration and nationality was established. The creation of a kind of Portuguese ICE, a political police force that will serve to welcome into its ranks the extreme elements of neo-Nazi movements, is only the beginning of national Trumpization. Montenegro smiled. Nuno Melo puffed himself up. Hugo Soares turned to the PS bench and reportedly shouted, “Get used to it.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Only this time, there is no outrage. Few voices, except those of the so-called thinking elites, have come out to shake Portugal. The media has swept the case under the rug, referring to a parody about António Vitorino from more than twenty years ago, when everyone knows they were talking about Costa. Now, it is not necessary to point out the impunity of the ruling class or the arrogance of the established majority. Now, it’s more important to pretend that the country’s main problem is immigrants and the papers they need to sign to be legal. It can never be overemphasized how important our class of journalists is in the rise of the new fascism.

I confess that I expected some indignation. Perhaps even a grassroots movement starting within the social democratic base itself, against the arrogance of Soares and Montenegro, who, after years of selling the “no” vote to keep the moderate vote locked in, went straight to “yes” as soon as they found themselves comfortably ensconced in their positions. I also expected a flood of left-wing protests, marching up and down the streets against this real attack on the rights of the Portuguese people and our tradition of integrating and valuing those who join our Portuguese identity.

Nothing. The country is asleep. It is afraid. Everyone has a neighbor who belongs to that party. And if you speak too loudly, you risk being put on the list. The opposition parties are bogged down. Meaningless internal motions of confidence. Swings to the center, without the handbrake on, which will only end up on the right. Tenuous growth that risks collapsing due to a lack of cohesion. And an old, empty pillar that remains unchanged, even as the world moves on. Is there no way to fight this? Are we destined to fall even deeper?

On the weekend of July 12 and 13, a group of heavily armed neo-Nazis took to the streets to wreak havoc in Spain. In the streets of Torre Pacheco, in the Murcia region, the thugs systematically harassed an entire community of people who spoke a different language, claiming to defend the sovereignty of their state. Beyond the ridiculousness of being a nationalist in a country as divided as Spain, the situation becomes particularly serious when it sets an example for everyone. Allegedly, there was talk of violence by a group of immigrants against a Spanish citizen who has already come forward to lament the exploitation of the situation by the far right. The solution must come from the local authorities and the equal application of the law. Not by a group of masked racists. But now anything goes, doesn’t it?

These people will not remember the history they never read. Dictators of the last century relied on groups like this to spread discord, dividing to rule. Then they become a nuisance. Because they are, for the most part, deeply limited in terms of empathy and intellect. That is why they end up being purged, with long knives stuck in their white bellies swollen with swastikas. One day, those who ran in Spain, the United States, and many other places around the world will end up like this. In the gutter, forgotten by those they wanted to idolize.

And we, who have now taken another step towards Trump, will we be more Salazarist than Salazar himself? The coalition of Melo and Montenegro has finally come out without shame. It was a big slap in the face of the assembly and democracy, with all the affection one would expect between sister benches. We have become an international embarrassment, in terms of nationality and hospitality. They have buried our gentle customs. Now that Portugal no longer has time to be gentle, what will happen? Will we take to the streets, or will they tattoo the coalition’s xenophobia on our skin? Now is not the time to be neutral, dear readers. Either you are for them, or you are against them. Get used to it.

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).