And after goodbye

 

6 November 1975, RTP1

The babbling of "look at that, doctor" of Álvaro Cunhal, at the time secretary-general of the PCP, arguing with his former student, Mário Soares, at the time, secretary-general of the PS, showed the struggle to be lost by the PCP, in favor of socialism. Among the beautiful pages of Visão, the "nobility" of character of a character nicknamed "The King-President" stands out, whose writing is by journalist Filipe Luís, where his sense of state stands out, which has been missing for a long time, as an adjective to cast in the political panorama, even before his father's departure from socialism to more domestic affairs. Among the various articles, entirely dedicated to the life of Mário Soares, Salgado Zenha, Olof Palme and many others stand out, who guaranteed him, not only the support (with the high patronage of many humans), but also exile and the consequent victories in the country, in the face of the risk of "relapse" into new dictatorships. Sócrates, his friend and also a former socialist prime minister, controversial as it is, is also included in this fine dossier, as well as Cavaco Silva, Freitas do Amaral, António Guterres, Jaime Gama, Rui Machete and Ernâni Lopes, the latter three, together with Soares (it's cool) "raised the nation" to more equal directions to the rest of Europe, when they signed the treaty of accession to the European economic community, that there was nothing consensual, especially by the opposition of the radical left, represented by Álvaro Cunhal and later, by Cunhal's substitute secretary general, which are these pieces of history that bring us understanding and memory, and which figure as the official version of events of the time, for lovers of contemporary political history, about socialism and, in particular, about Portugal, the country saddened until the 25th of April (25th of November) of 1975 and that brought such a breath of fresh air, well beyond this date.

"Look, no doctor", recovered, is a beautiful pearl of my past.

This very famous debate was moderated by the late José Carlos Megre and Joaquim Letria, in what was the debate of debates, lasting more than three hours, the country and its policies were still debated, but also the Dantist demagogy that inspired the utopian idealists, the revivalists of Salazarism and the teeming etceteras, from any and all quarters, from the extremes to the moderates, to come out of the cave and to be social and political interventionist citizens. It was the first and, perhaps, the last political debate of this duration and the ferocity of teacher vs student, in the entire history of Portuguese television. Visão (the last one) which is now quarterly and refers to the period from December 2024 to March 2025, raises the hares, points out the poachers, and dedicates from the cover, with gigantic and very noble headlines to the father of Portuguese socialism (of the non-communist left) to Mário Soares, to the whole body, from the time when a sense of state was still produced, commitment and shame in this beautiful garden of Europe or Algarve seaside resort. All after the goodbye.

I was looking all over the Vision and it leaves no doubt, if there were any, that the Statesman, the desired son, the mediocre student of the preceptors Agostinho da Silva and Álvaro Cunhal, the handsome husband of Maria Barroso (who was never a figure of style in her life, but a left-wing activist and her husband's great support network), from prime minister, to president of the Republic, he was a prominent figure around the world and remained so, even after his departure from political affairs. And when we debate, today, about democratic regimes and  figures of liberation, this is the most consensual portuguese of all those who were part of the political panorama of the time.
And after the goodbye, it was Paulo de Carvalho, the musical motto, the blatant culture of anti-dictatorial regime contestation, along with Ary dos Santos, Sérgio Godinho, Tordo, Zeca Afonso and so many others who freed the bulls (which vampires were already proliferating) in fury against the illegal and inhumane imprisonment, the greyness and ignorance to which Salazar gave voice and, the one that the PIDE embodied (made itself represented), like the workers' carbonara in the times of the republic, or in other words, the corporate operatives and castrating our freedom. This planetary alignment today, it is guaranteed by the intensive and permanent studies of astrologers, will leave no stone unturned. All moth-eaten mothballs will be remembered. Socialism will never be consensual, in terms of political choice, but only in Portugal was it distinguished in philosophical-theoretical terms from socialism in other latitudes, it is said. I say that censorship is the prerogative of all dictatorships, but that there are current and pseudo-democratic liberalisms in today's society that stink of dictatorship, that promote fear and denounce corruption, with demeaning and persistent symptoms of lack of sense of state, commitment and a lot of shame! And if illustrious figures such as Álvaro Cunhal and Mário Soares made a difference in the context of the seventies and in the development that threw us to Europe, I predict that the values that have since been abducted and that are part of any and all healthy democracy, will be restored and brought to us by such a planetary alignment, that I see them, not as the modern, mediatic New World Order, but rather the shadow government. Like in RAP. But without the humor that characterizes him. Saturn, Neptune, North Node (not a planet), Mercury, Venus, Sun and Moon, all looking at the photograph. For posterity and with a farewell to the old and smelly status quo, which no longer serves us, I ask the planets: Say Freedom instead of cheese! And then I laugh at myself, first because I am just a lady who is not satisfied with the lack of institutional, political and social verticality, anti-hypocrisy and anti-corruption, and then because, as an illustrious anonymous figure, it is up to me to be invisible and, no less important, representative democracy, to affirm that I am not conniving with anachronistic behaviors of servility and cronyism that prevail throughout the country and around the world. This draft serves to reiterate that I will be one of the volunteers of these planetary gentlemen, an "agent" of the "opportunism" of change to new social paradigms, with the napkin in my left arm and the tray in my right hand, to any and all self-respecting idealists. To Régio what belongs to Régio. To Zeca what belongs to Zeca. To my father, what is still his. My voice expresses.