Augusto Santos Silva (part 1): “Democracy needs more questions that end with a question mark and fewer exclamations”
In everyone’s memory remained the strong hand of Augusto Santos Silva with the radical right wing in the AR, reprimanding Ventura countless times and suggesting, on one of those occasions, with refined irony, that Ventura keep quiet with his protests and ” inspired” by the Buddha, “who in one of his sermons was silent, contemplating a flower”. And he also said: “Chega consider me his president†in the AR would be a “stain†on his CV.
In the last elections he was not re-elected as a deputy by the European electoral circle. Some voices felt that this bad result was the payoff for having provoked Chega, which had angered the European electorate.
The strategy of confronting hatred and intolerance in AR does not seem to have worked. But neither does Aguiar-Branco’s reverse strategy of aligning with Chega’s offenses and stupidities, when he responded to Alexandra Leitão that “in his opinion†, deputies can classify an ethnicity or race, such as “dumb or lazy†.
How does Augusto Santos Silva look at the opposite line of his successor? What is the best way to deal with democracy in the house of those who want to undermine it and its values, and have no shame in offending, stigmatizing minorities, creating disinformation or manipulating videos? These and other questions are asked in this first part.
Those who know him well say that in addition to being very intelligent, he is cerebral, cold and has outstanding self-control. And he who has already been a jack of all trades in politics – and has been treated as an obligatory voice in the strategy of the various socialist governments and the ‘mastermind’ for being a good, peaceful and consensual advisor – defines himself as “a professional scientist.†And he himself refers to it several times in this episode.
Augusto Santos Silva is a man with a taste for culture, who listens to classical music to work, starts the day by reading poetry, and enjoys going to the opera and the theater. And he is someone with whom I can discuss the new action plan for migration, the war, or the contemporary panorama of punk bands in Portugal.
Augusto, as he is treated by those closest to him, confesses in this episode that there is always restlessness, restlessness within him, it’s just restlessness, restlessness – as in the song It’s by José Mário Branco.
And who lives in this permanent restlessness, how is this separation from active politics, where the phone doesn’t ring so much?
After leaving the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva resumed his duties as a professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto, where he is seen as a very civilized, intelligent, cultured, moderate and restrained professor. There is almost no trace of his Troskista past on his CV.
In this episode Augusto Santos Silva is not gentle with the AD government. “The government will have to make amends. This idea of approving measures that mean more billions in expenses, and less billions in revenue is a path that only leads to fails which leads to destroying the condition of what is the most important capital that the country as such has managed to achieve in recent years, which are the so-called certain accounts.â€
And, for the 2025 OE to pass in Parliament, Santos Silva is of the opinion that Montenegro will have to change its strategy with the PS.
“To make the OE viable in parliament there are two ways of reasoning: one is Montenegro’s way of reasoning, which is to say ‘I am the government, the PS is the opposition, and whatever Whatever is proposed, the PS has the obligation to make it viable.’ This is the wrong reasoning. And there is the right reasoning, which is the government, which has the initiative in the budget debate, to build a proposal that can be made viable in parliament. That is, that it incorporates, that means concessions, absorption of proposals from others.â€
“I don’t understand any of this, but politically I think it’s like that,†is a phrase attributed to him, for privileging the political approach over the technical approach to everyday issues. And here he explains in this first part the reason for this. And much more.
Nuno Fox
As you know, the generic is signed by Márcia and has the collaboration of He had taken. The portraits are by Matilde Fieschi. And the sound design of this podcast is by João Ribeiro.
The second part of this episode will be released this Saturday morning. Happy listening!
