The AD Government’s support for the choice of António Costa to lead the European Council and the elections in France last Sunday occurred almost simultaneously and represent two opposing realities on the same problem. Yes, don’t be surprised by the comparison. The former Portuguese Prime Minister was also elected thanks to the support of an AD Government that fought so hard against him. This is not a problem, it is an example of responsibility and maturity.
The responsibility for the result in France lies not only with Le Pen nor Bardella, but with the inability of the traditional parties to reform the country and the disillusionment with Macron, as a new nobleman, who also forms My opportunist exploited this incapacity and killed socialists and republicans with a speech that sought to please both the left and the moderate right by devaluing traditional differences and exploiting the errors of socialists and popular people like any populist.
Macron ends up being largely responsible for the growth of the extreme right, for the disillusionment effect it caused, for the way in which he took advantage and manipulated the traditional French political spectrum under the slogan of a new generation that ultimately does not It wasn’t that good.
In the opposite direction, we see Luís Montenegro defending the name of António Costa as leader of the European Council, putting ideological differences aside, separating the wheat from the chaff and without fearing the discomfort of the most “fanatics†, whether they are internal or external to the AD itself.
And what do these two situations have in common? Absolutely nothing. They are inverse. But it was not always so.
The parties’ error occurs whenever moderates mutually exploit their weaknesses as if they were extremists and do so in an irresponsible and even demagogic way. I am not saying that moderates should cover up or inhibit themselves, but rather that they should not use the weapons of populists and demagogues. The PS and PSD have enough differences in their programs and actions that they do not need to be arrogant and demagogues to differentiate themselves.
Take the example of the post-troika when we all witnessed the irresponsibility of the Socialist Party in devaluing the efforts made by the Passos Coelho Government. António Costa and his peers irresponsibly pretended that the sacrifices and efforts were not worth it or necessary. That was irresponsible. This fed the Chegas of this life. Attention, I’m not saying that it couldn’t be said that there were things that were done poorly, but the post-Seguro PS behaved as if it had no responsibility either in the bankruptcy or in the memorandum and insisted on doing believe that the starting situations in 2011 and 2015 were the same. This was irresponsible because it was false.
Moderate parties do not have to be “meek†in action, but rather responsible and truthful. That’s why I never tire of repeating that PS and PSD have to respect each other and give each other respect. The path of the Chegas in this life is to make us believe that the moderate parties are all the same, that both have failed and that is not true. Portugal has grown and changed a lot since the 80s and this happened neither thanks to the extreme left nor thanks to the extreme right, but despite them.
The French result results from the inability of traditional parties, and above all from Macron’s inability to reform France. Despite there being a French party that claims to be insubmissive, the truth is that the French regime has always been submissive to the noise of the anti-reformist corporations that the French caviar left continues to protect. The French look to the National Front out of frustration with traditional parties.
