After the presentation of the proposal for the State Budget for 2013, by Minister Vítor Gaspar and a whole informational marathon on the subject, I went to bed.
In the morning, after waking up, being confronted with the fact that after all the nightmare continues, reading the headlines of the main newspapers and watching the morning news, I realized that nothing had changed, however I was assailed by a thought. What if…
Admitting it implies accepting that this government is capable of supernatural intelligence, will be admitting an unusual strategic capacity and accepting that in politics not everything that seems to be, and this last statement does not bring any surprises.
But politics can be Machiavellian and, as Niccolò Machiavelli, founder of modern political science, would say, in the phrase attributed to him by many, although some controversy persists as to whether it was actually his phrase, “The ends justify the means”.
And if ...
And if all this is nothing more than a big scheme so that in the “end” we all win, Portuguese and government? And “swallowing the frog” when forced to accept our naivety, as well as accepting the candor of all political opposition, in short, of all those who have opposed these measures and perhaps even those who have supported them without knowing the your real motives.
And what if what this government is engendering is to project abroad an image of despair and pain such that it provokes in international creditors and other European partners a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, identifying them, aggressors, with us victims?
It would be very smart, maybe too “good” to be true, but maybe the naive one is me, or at least a believer. Let's see.
The protagonists.
An orderly, peaceful, courageous, yet humble people, therefore the perfect sacrificial sheep.
We have international creditors to whom we will pay an absurd amount in debt and in interest on it, creditors who “forced” us to sign a contract that we all know is totally suicidal.
The loan shark.
A government that seems unshakable in its purposes, unattainable, irreducible and there we find the perfect executioner.
The Argument.
There is a colossal debt that has to be paid to creditors in record time, the result of more than three decades of mismanagement of public funds. There is the reason for the slaughter.
The dramatic element.
Poverty, announced hunger, debts, family failure, evictions, disease, the announced death of an entire people without hope.
And suddenly the creditors, the IMF, Europe, the President of the Republic, international analysts, international newspapers, all begin to demand calm from the governments. “Don't sacrifice the sheep (or the wool will run out)” and the Stockholm Syndrome begins to develop, identifying with us, protecting us from the Government and from themselves, allowing us more time to pay the lower interest debt.
The Government comes out on top, immaculate. He presents the plan devised in the various Councils of Ministers, there it is, that's why there were so many and we obviously forgave them for their malice. They win again the next elections to the amazement of all political agents.
If it isn't reality, it might as well be. At least there are the necessary ingredients for a literary or cinematographic play. How nice it would be to accept the transposition of this plot into real life, Machiavelli, Stockholm Syndrome, the pawnbroker, the sheep, the executioner, the script and the drama.
Hopefully the conclusion is less bleak than announced.
Either it was all just a dream or I suffer from Victim Syndrome.
Author Miguel Caetano is an architect
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