Portugal’s socialists will face the right-wing extremists in a runoff election in February. And the Social Democrats don’t know whose side they are on.
P Ortugal’s conservatives are playing with fire. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) by Prime Minister LuÃs Montenegro is for the second round of voting Presidential elections on February 8th do not make a recommendation. Montenegro explains this decision by saying that his political camp is not represented there. He is distancing himself equally from the socialist winner of the first round, António José Seguro, and the second, the right-wing extremist André Ventura.
Montenegro is thus signaling that for the PSD there is no longer any difference between those who defend the democratic republic that emerged from the Carnation Revolution in 1974 against the Salazar dictatorship and those who want to abolish it. This also means that for Montenegro there is no difference between democratic and social values ​​and the glorification of the dictatorship, which goes hand in hand with hate campaigns against immigrants and all kinds of minorities.
No decision is a decision. The PSD is thus normalizing Ventura’s post-Salazarist formation Chega (Enough) and thus its own government policy. Finally, Montenegro’s minority government relies on Chega. Montenegro has long since adopted large parts of their politics. Ventura rushes, Montenegro implements. This is the case with immigration law and citizenship. Montenegro and its PSD – once an integral part of this Portuguese Republic – can no longer be relied upon. She has long since changed sides. Sunday’s decision on the runoff election seals this.
Portugal’s right is as mindless and, above all, unprincipled as many others in Europe. Instead of distancing themselves and defending democracy, conservatives all over Europe are running after the neo-fascists, trying to copy them in the hope of preventing the electorate from leaving. Let’s hope that a majority of the electorate is more attached to their republic than the conservative opportunists.
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