On November 17, the new television ratings season began. These days, anything goes to get people to desperately cling to their jobs, lowering themselves to the services of the large economic groups in the communications sector, which control the destiny of our country. In the local elections, the issue was more or less overlooked, because there are so many candidates, of all shapes and sizes, that it becomes impossible to organize the games without obvious discrimination. It’s not that television owners care about the lack of justice and equality, mind you. It’s just a way to protect themselves from possible lawsuits. The rich, the very rich, are always protecting their constant potential criminality because they believe that equality is synonymous with parasitism. The vast majority, no matter how many mirrors they have, have never looked closely at their reflection.

After the local elections, which ended with the country’s capitulation to the far-right party, here we are in the middle of the presidential elections, and the television stations are salivating over so many candidates. Between November 17 and December 22, there are 28 debates scheduled, by my count, and that’s just counting the ones that will feature the so-called “serious candidates.” I imagine they thought about holding a debate on Christmas Eve, but someone said it might be too much! I also imagine that somewhere in this country Manuel João Vieira will be debating Joana Amaral Dias, and that may be the most entertaining of all the surreal spectacles we will have this decade.

As for the “serious” debates, the cycle will already be well underway when this article is published, and I have no desire, or even patience, to come here and analyze the case, word by word, point by point, and shout by shout. It will be more than enough to tell you that what is happening is what was already expected. Ventura shouts, lies, and spends his life pointing out problems, without offering any kind of solution. The Salazar nostalgic has specialized in a style of speech that mixes the barfly with the poor thing, always playing the suffering victim, only to then jump on his opponents and not even let them finish a sentence. He is the candidate of the short video, where two sentences are shared without contradiction or clarification, to deceive his supporters, whom he then calls fools in private WhatsApp groups.

The remaining presidential candidates are, in general, weak. There are, of course, one or two who take advantage of their leadership profile, their social and fair vision of society, and their act of confronting a presidential system that has been sucked dry by the walking corpses of Cavaco and Marcelo over the last twenty years of disasters. Gone is the mirage of a dignified Jorge Sampaio, without selfies, without fainting on live TV, without interviews with a hoarse voice, or without the secret police-like posture of Mr. Silva, who they now want to sell us as a great statesman, but who spent his life trying to control governments and push the country into the abyss.

Gouveia e Melo and Marques Mendes are the names that have positioned themselves for the leadership position, with Ventura’s deceitful narrative nipping at their heels. A victory for any of these gentlemen will be the continuation of the national calamity, sponsored by the media. I am not talking about journalists or other Portuguese television workers, mind you. They simply follow orders, and when they don’t, they are immediately dismissed for a variety of alleged reasons, but never for the real cause: disagreeing with the ideological choice of their bosses.

I don’t buy into the national outpouring of grief that has been created around Balsemão after his death, building a new man who should now be remembered as fair and egalitarian. If he did not directly interfere in editorial lines, as many say, it is because he never needed to. He had people to do it for him. The same is true of all the big media moguls, whether Portuguese or foreign. And the situation only gets worse when we look more closely at examples such as the NOW channel or CMTV, which are children of the same father, the Medialivre group.

Medialivre, which is free in name only, is a large economic group with many shareholders, which is then divided into internal groups and subgroups, to break up into names in our public square, with well-known lawyers, businesspeople, and journalists. Among these networks, Sorolla – SGPS, S. A. stands out. A dive into the transparency portal, in search of the origin of its work in Portuguese society, brings us back to our senses, and does not end well, besides seeming to hit another network of a gentleman named César do Paço, whom some of the people reading this may recognize as having been mentioned at length in Miguel Carvalho’s book. Incidentally, this Mr. César seems to have returned to his island friendships, now more focused on São Miguel than on his native island.

Still on the subject of the Medialivre group and its alleged links to the far right, I cannot fail to mention the name of the second largest shareholder group, with 30% of the total shareholding: CR7, S.A.. As the title suggests, it belongs to Cristiano Ronaldo. Yes, our best soccer player in the world, trained at my beloved Sporting and the greatest ambassador for Portugal abroad. Cristiano owns CMTV and NOW. He is also an avowed fan of Donald Trump and his extremist friends, as well as recently becoming an ambassador for the dictatorial regime of Saudi Arabia and giving increasingly provocative interviews in the style of Mr. Ventura’s debates.

From the Medialivre group, CMTV, and NOW, the virus has spread, and now we only have channels like this. In search of serious crimes to announce on the news. In the construction of a cycle of presidential debates worthy of a Europa League. Where the chief debater is invited for interviews every other day. And where endless commentary panels are held to analyze debates and tell us who won and who lost.

Once and for all. Debates are not won or lost! It’s not a damn football game. Either we relearn this basic truth of citizenship, or we will be condemned to a country where the largest audience channel is owned by a soccer player who thinks women are objects and whose idol is the greatest dictator of the 21st century, so far.

Alexandra Manes is from Flores Island but lives on Terceira Island in the Azores. She is a regular contributor to several Azorean newspapers, a political and cultural activist, and has served in the Azorean Parliament.

NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from leading thinkers and writers in the Azores, providing the diaspora and those interested in the current state of the Azores with a sense of the significant perspectives 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).