What do I expect from a politician? Be assertive, aware of the path to follow and determined to achieve the goals you set.
I do not discuss here, of course, the reasonableness of the proposals, the meaning of the strategy, nor the results produced (although they, she and they are the most important of all, of course). I just want to know, in the concrete and defined case, the posture: to those in power, I prefer them that way.
The problem is that those who sit on Father's right retain that haughty air of one who 'never makes mistakes and rarely has any doubts', a peculiar characteristic of most protagonists of Portuguese public life.
In Portugal, determination is confused with arrogance. As if being humble means being weak.
For the average Portuguese politician, fulfilling the role entrusted to him well is synonymous with harsh speech and words bordering on insult.
We like whips, yes. We'd rather be bossed around than lead processes. The Rabbits of this life know it perfectly and, knowing it, they rule us by fear.
They chase us out of here, label us corny, say that we need to work harder, that we are soft-boiled, vicious thugs.
Well, we will be all that and in fact the best thing is to emigrate, but what cannot happen is for the Prime Minister, and not our father, to say so.
I don't know if they have been (or are) in one of those weddings where whenever the other party opens their mouths, even before speaking, we already know that nothing good is coming from there.
If my wife spends her life calling me names, if she tells me every day that it's best for me to leave the house, that no matter how hard I try, I'll never stop being a fraud, what does she expect me to do with this information, even if true?
Relationships are built on trust. If I trust, I follow. If I surrender, I'm better. We don't believe it, we won't.
Maybe it's not enough, but the Portuguese are going through difficult days. We were living a lie, I've written it before, but it was bullshit they made us believe – with that tone of “God in heaven and me here”.
We woke up, we are becoming aware of what is happening – although far from the real perception of the mess we are in – and, as far as possible, we try to get on with our lives. All we don't need is that the current face of poverty that invades us has the effrontery to say that we are its greatest hindrance.
It's just that, Pedro, above all else, Portugal is us. What's left is abstraction.
Nuno Andrade Ferreira is journalist, lives and works in Mindelo (Cape Verde) and regularly writes on his blog Marcha dos Pinguins: http://marchadospinguins.blogspot.com
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