I’ll start by inviting you: today, at 2pm, “Join the Conversation” with David Dinis and Pedro Cordeiro to talk about “Trump vs Biden: what to expect from the remake?”. register here.
March 20. In the northern hemisphere, this is the day that marks the arrival of spring. But in the western rectangle that we call Portugal, the most flowery and poetic time of the year appears, in 2024, shadowed by clouds of instability. It may not be a spring of wreckage, as Mão Morta sang more than 20 years ago, but – despite the benign weather – we are also far from an idyllic scenario.
At the Belém Palace, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa received Pedro Nuno Santos yesterday. Two hours later, the leader of the Socialist Party confirmed handing Luís Montenegro the task of presenting a “stable government”, calling himself and his party the mission of representing a “responsible opposition”. As such, it is available to reach an understanding with the AD within 30 days to increase the salaries of teachers, security forces, health professionals and court officials, approving an amending budget by the summer.
Even though the final result of the elections remains to be determined, while the last emigration votes are being counted, Pedro Nuno Santos does not want to complicate matters (“The country needs a stable government and the PS does not have a majority to present”) and shows himself available to establish an agreement with Luís Montenegro on raises for various professional groups in the public service. “The Government still in office has left us in a financial and economic situation [que nos permite fazê-lo]”, believes the socialist general secretary, who also wants to have a say in the future location of the airport. The hypothesis of the PS approving the State Budget for 2025 is, he warns, “practically impossible”.
Today, Wednesday, the President of the Republic receives the AD delegation, in the person of Luís Montenegro, thus ending the round of hearings that followed the March 10 elections. The meeting is scheduled for the time when the CNE (National Elections Commission) stops receiving votes from abroad, at 5 pm.
Until yesterday, around 260 thousand votes from Portuguese residents abroad had been scrutinized and recorded. With less than 50 thousand votes from the target, the trend is confirmed: election of two deputies for Chega (Europe and Outside Europe), one for the PS (Europe) and one for AD (Outside Europe).
If Portugal were one of the series that seem to have replaced soap operas in the collective imagination, it would be difficult to guess the outcome of this season. Two more additions to the next episodes: the meetings on the left called by the Bloc start this Wednesday, with the PAN, and the CDS appears uncomfortable with a possible entry of the IL into the government.
OTHER NEWS
Operation Maestro Businessman and commentator Manuel Serrão and journalist Júlio Magalhães are targets of Operation Maestro, within the scope of which the Judicial Police investigates the alleged embezzlement of around 40 million euros from the European Regional Development Fund. At TVI, Júlio Magalhães suspended the presentation of news programs. As for Manuel Serrão, Margarida Cardoso introduces him to the business of “the oldest Portuguese fashion vendor”. Meanwhile, the Public Ministry suspects that Manuel Serrão used European funds to pay for his eight-year stay in a luxury hotel, and Público writes that he also the designer Katty Xiomara and the textile technological innovation center Citeve are in the sights of the authorities.
Herman José He turned 70 this Wednesday and was awarded the Medal of Cultural Merit. For António Costa, it is no coincidence that the artist celebrates, in 2024, 50 years of career: the same age as Portuguese democracy. Presenting him as “a comedian unconditionally committed to freedom”, the outgoing Prime Minister recalled that “humor is vital for any democratic society, because it tests freedom of expression.” Herman José’s genius can, and should , be remembered in the essay by Pedro Boucherie Mendes who, in February, made the cover of Expresso magazine.
Metro Good news for those who live in Loures and Odivelas: the new violet line should be completed by December 2026, an 11.5 km light rail line that promises to make life easier for the 174,000 inhabitants of those cities in the Lisbon district.
Putin An investigation by Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper, repeatedly censored by the Kremlin, indicates that around half of the votes for Vladimir Putin in this weekend’s presidential elections were falsified.
Israel Canada announced that it will suspend arms shipments to Israel. The decision is part of a framework of support for the ceasefire in Gaza, the release of detainees and the two-state solution. Meanwhile, Israel will send representatives of its government to the United States to explain plans for the offensive against Rafah, in southern Gaza, which it argues is the only way to eliminate Hamas.
Depeche Mode The authors of ‘Enjoy the Silence’ performed this Tuesday at Meo Arena, in Lisbon, in what was their first concert in Portugal since the death of Andy Fletcher, keyboardist and founding member of the group. 22 songs later, Dave Gahan and Martin Gore proved that there are bands that, no matter how much they suffer, always come back. The chronicle and photos of this special night are here.
Kate e William The public demands to know what is really happening with the English royal family. The desire is born from the simultaneous search for perfection and authenticity and speculation has been “as intense as it is ridiculous”, says constitutionalist Bob Morris to Expresso.
PHRASES
“Contrary to the common idea, I think that the legislatures did not prove that the ‘sanitary fence’ at Chega failed. When 66% of the PSD electorate refuses any approach to Ventura’s party, the AD would most likely have fallen significantly if the strategy had been different. No: what was missing from the PSD, AD or Montenegro campaign was not the strategy, it was the absence of a dream”, David Dinis, in Expresso
“Santos Silva is practically certain to be left out”, José CesárioPSD representative at the emigration vote count assembly, on RTP
“[Receber a condecoração] It is a happiness enhanced by the fact that it comes from a Government that is hyper-resigning. These are people who in a few days will no longer send anything”, Herman José at the presentation of the Medal of Cultural Merit
PODCASTS
“What is the Multibanco owner being accused of? At stake is a fine of millions”, Economy Day by Day
“Will Montenegro avoid obstacles or go into shock?”, Political Commission
“Iolanda: ‘I’ve been thinking a lot about the issue of boycotting Israel. It’s a matter that fell into my hands when I won the Song Festival’”, Posto Emissor
WHAT I’M READING
“Timeless” is probably one of the adjectives that we use least judiciously to praise a work of art. But what can we say when, in a chronicle written in 1944, we find an idea that could have been outlined yesterday, the day on which a breakdown on the Cascais Line further complicated the lives of users, or on any other journey of those who have “the life to lead”, as Chico Buarque would sing?
Rubem Braga lived between 1913 and 1990, in Brazil, and entered the history of his country’s culture as an excellent author of chronicles, those “sad cabbages of literature”, as he himself defined his craft. In March 1944, he started from a case of “white strike” (purposeful wear and tear of factory machinery) to paint a portrait of the “most abundant type of machines” in the country. “These machines that we will call, with a certain goodwill, human. And here is a problem to consider: the wear and tear that takes place, in Brazil, on flesh and blood machines. Let the reader watch, morning or afternoon, the departure or arrival of the suburban trains on which these flesh-and-blood machines travel. There, yes, it is possible to observe the violent, almost distressing wear and tear of the machinery. It’s hard to believe that we are there in front of the same species of animal that shows itself on the sands of Copacabana. Most women and men, including children, have an air of being used – and abused.”
“Human creatures are very delicate machines – and there are no other machines in this country that take less care of. Poor machines of flesh and blood! To keep them in good working order, to make them yield more and last longer, they would need to receive, in the ration that Life offers them every day, a little more meat and a little less bone – those innumerable bones that life Most of our people have to gnaw with such fury and such bad teeth, and that meat that is not only that which so often doesn’t exist at the end of the endless lines, but also everything that in life has its basis.[b]stance and blood, the most natural and necessary joys for the body and soul to which everyone has the right and so few have access.”
Collected in “Sorry Tocar no Assunto” (Tinta da China edition), Rubem Braga’s chronicles are a jolt of humor, tenderness and a critical acuity so sneaky that it almost goes unnoticed. Which reminds us that, at the time of his death, the writer asked his son not to make the day of the funeral public. “Thank anyone who wants any provision to the contrary, however honorable it may be, but do not give in to the symbols of death, which frighten children and sadden adults. Live the life.” A suitable message for Father’s Day, which was celebrated yesterday: congratulations to those who know how to be a father, to those who still have one and/or to those who know how to honor his memory, despite the hypocrisy that, according to Henrique Raposo, one of these days can represent.
I say goodbye, hoping that you will continue to be there, where we like you to be and we really want you to continue, supporting free journalism in the different brands we have to offer you: here at Expressbut on Tribunealready Blitz ou na Sic News.