In 1984, the term “newspeak” was coined—an expression that later became widely used and remains strikingly relevant today. When someone speaks, what we hear is not necessarily what we are meant to understand. A word only holds the meaning assigned to it by institutional power. If you are told that “green” means “blue,” then that is how you must interpret it. “Green” becomes “blue,” just as a speech about dismantling the public system can be transformed into a humanitarian homily. All it takes is control of the narrative, exercised through the media.

With this in mind, let us return to December 16 of last week, when the Minister of Education, Science and Innovation decided to give us all a lesson in newspeak. While delivering a speech on the transformative process he intends to apply to the higher education system and its social obligations, Fernando Alexandre began by speaking of the need to “mix social classes” in university residences. According to the economist, economic segregation and tiered systems must be eliminated, since these concepts are traps created by the system itself and end up harming the most vulnerable.

For a moment, it sounded as though he were addressing a national congress of the Portuguese Communist Party—only a sickle and hammer on the podium were missing to complete the picture. The truth, however, is far harsher. Immediately afterward, still following the same line of thought, Fernando shifted his tone and urged us to understand a certain “reality”: that public services—be they university residences or hospitals—deteriorate when they are used by poor people. This is not something I invented, nor something generated by algorithmic intelligence. It is there, plainly stated, in the video the minister himself shared on his ministry’s official page.

What happened was this: the minister delivered a humanitarian-sounding speech to obscure what followed—a call for a change in mindset that he intends to implement alongside his friends on the far right. A kind of Reactionary Process Underway, revealed in every emotionally charged sentence uttered off the cuff, rather than in the carefully prepared briefing notes. By lumping hospitals together with university residences, Alexandre let something slip. The problem is not “management,” as he later tried to excuse himself. The problem is the public service itself—something that, in his vision, must be suppressed so that the holy private sector may step in and give birth to the dreamed-of neoliberal reality. This is the dawn I had been dreading.

His entire speech reminded me of the famous line spoken by Caco Antibes—“I can’t stand poor people!”—in a Brazilian comedy series. Who would have imagined that Caco Antibes, back in the 1990s, would end up satirizing the Portuguese government of 2025?

The fact is that Pedro Passos Coelho was never truly defeated. He was merely pushed into the shadows by the resounding unity of a left that has since grown scarce. Now, emerging again from the fog, the knight returns bearing the apocalypse for Portugal’s poor—wielded by the sinister minister of health and the malicious minister of education. Two pillars of our social system, corroded without hesitation in the space of a few months.

The nation revolted. After the general strike that Leitão failed to see, a spontaneous movement of popular outrage arose against Fernando Alexandre’s statements, just as it had earlier against the words of Ana Paula Martins. Across the country—on street corners and in publications—people expressed genuine indignation at such dehumanization promoted by a senior member of Portugal’s current government. And the minister, who in addition to being trained in economics also understands the art of clever maneuvering, quickly revealed the true objective of his diversion.

Within hours, he was on television, outraged at the way he had been treated, claiming he merely wanted to humanize the poor, those unfortunate souls. It is the system, he argued, that oppresses the poor and denies them decent conditions. The solution, however, is not to improve the system—which he currently oversees—but to devise new ways to bring wealthy people into it. Because if “respectable young people” live in the residences, they will be better cared for. Everyone knows the system pays closer attention to the doctor’s son than to the fisherman’s daughter. And everyone knows there is nothing to be done about it. One must accept it. A poor person is a poor person. A rich person is power in potential.

Suddenly, what was said is no longer what was said. Newspeak, after all, tells us that the minister was protecting people, not attacking the poor to create opportunities for wealthy friends. Along the way, he even found time to help his colleague by taking a stab at public hospitals. But that didn’t happen. It was taken out of context! Which context? The one they define. Those in power are the ones who decide what the context is.

They made one mistake—a small detail, not highlighted in bold, meant to slip by unnoticed. In the statement issued by Fernando Alexandre’s ministry regarding the controversy they themselves created, there is a reference to what they wanted to do but were unable to accomplish: the creation of more university residence spaces for non-scholarship students. There, newspeak had not yet been applied, and we can see clearly what they truly intend. That proposal was rejected through technical assessments and social consultation. Hence the need to bring the controversy into the public arena. Hence the need to turn the minister into a misunderstood martyr—someone who only wanted to mix the poor with the moderately well-off in order to save everyone. If that is what he says, it must be true, mustn’t it?

The truth is that this is the government Passos Coelho dreamed of when he wanted to go beyond the Troika. They are preparing to destroy what remains of the National Health Service and the public education system. They apply patchwork solutions, handing crumbs to the poor, while with the other hand they erect a temple to unregulated capitalism, where anything goes—including gouging out eyes. They are ready to destroy us. All that remains for us is what has always remained: the street, shoulder to shoulder, against newspeak. We must carry on.

Season’s greetings—and may our gift to the country be to tell these despots that they shall not pass.

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).