© Copyright by Violeta Santos Moura 2024. All rights reserved
Visitors take photos of a calvary composed of several illuminated granite crosses at the entrance of the village of Ludares during winter religious festivities in this Trás-os-Montes village in Portugal.
PERSONAL NOTES: Given the current times and my expectation of a strict separation between church and state, I have conflicting feelings about the role of religion in social affairs in Portugal. While on the one hand, I find the aesthetic and folkloric aspects of religious festivities in my country alluring, I can't help feeling threatened by the implicit prevalence of christian tradition as reference and a powerful mediator in the Portuguese social and political spheres.
Catholicism remains a strong social binding factor in Portugal and religiousness is a factor taken into consideration by a large part of the population when voting, being the two last presidents, of deep religious and conservative affiliation, an example.
Apart from this, religion and catholicism have traditionally been instruments of misogyny and patriarchy.
As an example, judicial authorities have, especially in cases of domestic and gender violence, resorted to religion as justification for light sentences given to the aggressors. An appeals court in Porto confirmed suspended sentences to an ex-husband and an ex-lover who teamed up to kidnapped and beat their ex-wife and lover with a nail-spiked club.The judges justified the ruling by stating that the two men were likely driven to assault the woman by the victim's adultery, that the Bible says that 'an adulteress should be punished with death’. “Adultery by a woman is a very serious attack on the honor and dignity of a man", the judges wrote of their ruling.
But this was not the first time that one of the judges made such a ruling. In the year prior to the case above, the male judge annulled a prison sentence in an assault case because the victim had committed adultery and so, according to the judge, lacked credibility.
As another example of religion's weigh in national issues, the church also continues to play one of the most important roles in the national social safety net through its charity Santa Casa da Misericórdia, a powerful role that, should belong to the state alone and be separated from a specific — in this case religious — group.
Since the election of a socialist government in 2015 and until it's reelection in 2019, analysts had described how Portugal has been a somewhat rare oddity amidst Europe’s tilt to the right: contrary to the international trend and despite subtle unsettling winds blowing through its streets, Portugal has managed to remain politically moderate. The country was one of only a handful of European Union member countries without far-right representation in its national parliament.
Until it’s 2019 legislative elections, that is.
With the election of one MP of the nationalist-conservative xenophobic party “Chega!” (“Enough!”), this is the first time a far-right party garners representation in Portugal's parliament since the end of the Salazar's fascist dictatorship in 1974. Then the question being asked became: how did this happen?
Portugal had been listed by the Global Peace Index in 2019 as the 3rd most peaceful country in the world and has managed to stay mostly politically moderate. However, the reasons behind this may have more to do with an austerity wary population than with social tolerance. After years of painful liberal conservative-led economic austerity during the 2010-15 financial crisis, the Portuguese elected a socialist government in 2015. Despite this, Portugal is not immune to the international tilt to the far-right.
This is to say that whatever polarised feelings exist in other countries, and which have allowed the far-right to take root, they also exist in Portugal. The difference has been perhaps timing and a greater weariness of a return to not long gone economic austerity than of refugees, immigrants or minorities. In reality, the peaceful and warm Portugal of Instagram travel posts and glossy economic recovery articles coexists with a less visible country where deep seated discrimination exists, is personal and in most cases escapes institutional scrutiny, where violence is intimate and the distance between people and lack of compassion is palpable, hinting at burgeoning cracks: shop owners place ceramic frogs in their shops because it is believed Gypsies avoid frog images; landlords advertise properties as unavailable for residents and citizens of African and Brazilian origins; LGBTQ youth are targeted in violent attacks; women are killed by men in staggering numbers: violence against women reached unprecedented numbers last January, when 10 women were killed by men, a staggering rate for such a small country.
“The Spaces Between Us” is an essay shot over the years due to my observation that “peace” cannot simply mean the absence of warfare or the number of progressive laws as per the most liberal trends. What I seek to convey is that when it comes to interpersonal relations not institutionally mediated, the street in Portugal has yet to catch up. In it I express my worry that any society, even such a supposedly peaceful one like Portugal, bears in itself the dormant seeds for the resurgence of the far-right that, under the right conditions, can eventually take root. Not knowing which direction my country would follow at a historic crossroads for most countries, I felt the need to document the wind blowing in the streets in Portugal as it recovered from economic strife amidst an international appetite for the far-right.
“The Spaces Between Us” became especially relevant in the aftermath of Portugal’s 2019 legislative elections so as to understand Portugal beyond its surface and how the far-right finally managed to obtain parliament representation in a country that has somehow managed to keep itself moderate despite its numerous cracks and the international tilt to the right.Sara, 28 y/o, pauses during her reading of a statement at a vigil organized by rights groups to show support for her after she suffered a violent homophobic attack in which she was severely injured. Porto, December 17, 2014
Just days before, at this same square and after a long night of work as bartender at a local pub in Porto (Portugal), Sara was beaten up by her taxi driver after she bid farewell to a girl friend with a kiss on her lips.
NOTES: People usually advise taking a taxi home at night so as to ensure security and so did Sara. Little did she know the danger she was trying to avoid was actually driving the taxi. Two other drivers waiting for customers witnessed the attack, did not intervene or helped Sara in the aftermath of the aggression. She was afterwards taken to a hospital by a emergency medical team.
Minority rights groups and progressive sections of the civil society showed solidarity. However, the general population either blamed the victim or questioned her credibility, among other similar reactions: "beating is too much, but she shouldn't have disrespected a working man by kissing another girl in such manner"; "she must have done something to deserve it, couldn't be just the kiss"; "if he beat her, he must have felt very offended, no man beats a woman like that without motive"; Apart from these, there was also the spreading of "theories" like one in which she is the driver's lover who wanted to wreck his family, leading him to “punish her”.
The normalisation of homophobia and transphobia are far from being a phenomenon characteristic of older generations or less educated segments of the population. According to a 2018 study by two Portuguese universities, three out of five students say they have heard homophobic comments from university professors.
Data from 2017 collected by non-profits indicates that out of 188 cases registered by victims, witnesses or support services, two were instances of extreme physical violence, three were sexual assaults, four were violent assaults.
The real numbers remain unknown. Many of the victims avoid filing a complaint for fear of reprisal by the aggressor, social stigmatisation, trauma or skepticism about authorities' ability to investigate complaints or suspected unwillingness to properly address complaints by LGBTQ.
A butterfly rests on a tv screen where a news broadcast shows archive footage of Ana Paula Fidalgo [center], 39 years old, being interviewed for a morning show about her restaurant just little more than a year before being killed by her husband, also pictured being interviewed by her side [left].
While a man rests [center], another [left] sweeps and cleans up an open area in the center of the northern Portuguese city of Porto where three Romani families had been living for 6 months. Porto, Portugal 2012
According to some of the families' members, Portugal has been, so far, relatively welcoming, or at least not physically threatening, in contrast with other countries. They say police and people around do not harass them as long as they are not accused of stealing and that they are left to live in peace. The families say however that the community in general and other non-nomadic Romanian immigrants face suspicion and sometimes harassment under accusations of theft.
Recep Ibrahim, the elder of this makeshift hamlet, worries that other people, who may be mistaken as belonging to this three families, may steal and that this could damage the good relations he has with the few Portuguese people he knows and even mean harm and forced displacement to him and the three families. He says he has steered the three families with an iron fist when it comes to how to make a living, saying they must first work in the markets and if this is not enough, that they can resort to finding other works if available and, as a last resort, to begging, which he says as become more usual than he would like. He says that stealing is absolutely forbidden under his eye.
However and although starkly below the minimum wage, most members of these families work. They make around 10 euros a day working for the Portuguese Gypsy community in clothes markets in the region, loading and unloading goods and assisting in other chores. The children do not go to school and at times are out begging for money with their mothers or older siblings. A nearby church and it's priest usually provide some help to the families in more difficult occasions. Recep Ibrahim says he is very fond of the priest and enjoys talking to him.
The families have been in Portugal, in different locations, for six years and sometimes make a five days bus journey from Portugal to visit their families in Romania, at the other edge of Europe.
In Portugal, they barely take shelter from severe winter weather with just tents made of blankets, domestic refuse, canes and plastic bags. Without running water or other basic living facilities, facing extremely cold wet winters and severe exclusion and discrimination, they say that, for the moment, they still feel better off in Portugal than in Romania or other EU countries, away from physical harm.
One of forty participants in a march in homage to Portuguese fascist dictator Oliveira Salazar and organized by far-right movement New Social Order, waves a flag with the the deceased autocrat's image in front of the Portuguese parliament building in Lisbon, Portugal.
PERSONAL NOTES: While only a few dozens participated in the march, nostalgia for the fascist dictatorship lingers among sections of the population who do not necessarily identify with this particular brand of far-right and who seem themselves as moderate-right.
Contrary to the trend of the rest of Europe, far-right parties have remained almost residual in Portugal. On the one hand the resentment many feel towards the center-right for their austerity led government during the economic crisis in Portugal has lingered among the wider public. On the other, the constituencies targeted by more nationalist and far-right parties have remained loyal to the center-right due to conservatives tendency to adopt at least some of the most populist discourse that could otherwise lead some to veer to the far-right.
However, this might change. In a 2018 poll, 27% of those enquired say they would consider changing their vote for the far-right.
In January, Mário Machado, the leader of this ultra-right group who has a swastika tattooed on his harm, recently participated as a guest in a highly popular tv morning show to comment on whether "we need a new Salazar".
Machado, also the founder of a neonazi skinhead group in Portugal, served a total of 12 years prison sentence for inciting hatred and involvement in the racist murder of Cape Verdean Alcino Monteiro among other crimes.
A view from the balcony of my house shows firefighters and a police forensics team below, collecting the body of a person who committed suicide by jumping off the bridge above my house and was found below in the river Corgo river in Vila Real de Trás-os-Montes [Portugal]
NOTES: This is one of the most common places in my home city where suicides take place, usually by jumping from the bridge above my house.
Being this a small city, boredom and hopelessness seem to have coexisted in equal doses. For fear that I might fall into the trap of drug abuse and suicide, my parents sent me, at 16 years old, to do high school in Porto, the second biggest Portuguese city. One year after my move to Porto, two of my friends, one being one of my closest, committed suicide. They were two of many others that before and after that time took their lives.
With several cases of severe mental illness and psychiatric disorder in my family, I came to understand that the social stigma surrounding mental illness and the lack of state measures to treat patients and support families, will continue to destroy and take lives around me.
While the country sells an image based on the concept of “saudade”, or “longing”, depression and psychiatric illness remain misunderstood as well as factor of exclusion and discrimination.
According to the report "The Portrait of Health", published in April 2018 by the Portuguese Ministry of Health, "the results of the study on the prevalence of mental illness in the Portuguese adult population suggest that we are the European country with the highest prevalence of mental illness", with cases of depression and anxiety disorders increasing in 2017.
According to the Director General of Health Francisco George, at the presentation of the Report of the National Program for Mental Health 2017, prevalence of suicide in Portugal has remained stable, with around 1,000 cases a year: “in every 100 thousand inhabitants the probability of ten committing suicide remains unchanged".
Despite the numbers, mental illness however, remains a taboo and people suffering from it are highly stigmatized and severely excluded, leading many not to seek treatment.
Data from the National Institute of Statistics published in 2017 shows that in the previous nine years, suicide was the the cause of death of 9645 people in Portugal.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is seen live on a newscast through a television set in a home in Vila Real de Trás-os-Montes the day after his inauguration as current President of the Portuguese Republic.
PERSONAL NOTES: A center-right conservative politician, law professor, tv personality and a practicing Catholic, Rebelo de Sousa is a widely cherished, popular and influential figure in national politics. I hold mixed feelings about him mostly, because I know there could be worst. Much worst.
Rebelo de Sousa practices a brand of proximity politics that could be described as 'populism-light', as opposed to his predecessor who, despite sharing the same political stance, was much less popular due to his very formal, and almost aristocratic, attitude towards the population.
Nonetheless, Rebelo de Sousa has publicly expressed his conservative views on issues of self-determination and personal liberties such as euthanasia, abortion and sex change. In May 2018 Rebelo de Sousa exercised veto power to prevent the approval of legislation that would allow changing the mention to gender and name changing in the civil registry from the age of 16 without a medical report. Meanwhile, at the European level, it was announced that from 2021 identity cards will no longer make reference to the gender, until now "male" or "female", of its bearer.
In another instance, and as parliamentary debate was ongoing on proposals to legalize assisted death, Rebelo de Sousa said he was considering vetoing the decriminalization of euthanasia should it be approved in parliament.
However, in a welcomed move, Rebelo de Sousa publicly criticised what was widely condemned by rights groups as a biased ruling by judges in Porto who resorted to the bible as justification for light sentences in a case where an ex-husband and an ex-lover teamed up to kidnapped and beat a woman with nail-spiked club. The judges, one of which is a woman, justified the ruling by stating that the men were likely driven to the assault by the victim's adultery, and that the Bible says that 'an adulteress should be punished with death’. “Adultery by a woman is a very serious attack on the honor and dignity of a man", the judges wrote in their ruling.
My mom, sick with flu, refuses to stop toiling in our Vila Real de Trás-os-Montes home, always optimist despite her endless struggles to take care of a sibling of mine with acute and permanent medical needs.
PERSONAL NOTES: My mom keep an unshakeable faith in Christianity and the church despite her woes. I never really quite understood how.
We sometimes argue about it, especially because the church advocates against abortion and says it is “pro-life” while, at the same time, it usually favors parties that lack social answers to those who are born and fall into disadvantage, such as our family member who is disabled.
At the same time, I know her faith is what has kept her going in her endless struggles. She says it is faith that inspires her to help others, regardless of creed or origin, and she is one of the kindest humans I’ve met. One day my dad told me he met the husband of a former neighbor and that the man mentioned that if it hasn’t been for my mom’s help, his wife would not have her retirement pension. I’m sure the political parties that she feels that represent her beliefs are far from what she is and that they act opposite to what she’d do. Conservative parties, who usually appeal to a very pious section of the population in a overwhelmingly catholic country, usually also espouse xenophobic and homophobic views, which stand in direct opposition to what my mom feels.
A man scavenges for discarded electronics to resell in a recycling container at the parking lot of a mall in the northern city of Vila Real, Portugal.
With analysts warning of another looming financial crisis, many fear Portugal could once again be engulfed by social strife, this time in what is being described as a potential “perfect storm” as current political trend sees european democracies veering to the right, even in the absence of a major economic crisis.
Portugal, for its part, has managed to stay moderate. After years of painful conservative-led economic austerity, the country elected a socialist government in 2015. At the same time the economy has been recovering and Portugal's socialist government is seen as responsible for it. Predictions say it is unlikely that the right will be brought again to power in the near future as Portugal has not yet forgotten the hardships bestowed by the conservatives’ management of the 2010-15 economic crisis in Portugal.
However, analysts warn that a new international financial crisis could lead to unpredicted and worrying consequences at the social level.
A demonstrator marches with a torch in Lisbon, during one of the few large scale demonstrations against austerity measures during Portugal's economic crisis.
NOTES: Possibly due to the phenomenon of what is generally known in Portugal as "ashamed poverty" — an ethos imposed by the fascist dictatorship of Oliveira Salazar and interiorised by the population —, personal and collective protests in Portugal against the government's management of the crisis remained relatively scarce despite the harsh economic difficulties experienced by the population and as opposed to other countries affected by the crisis. This was coupled with a misplaced attitude connecting sacrifice, quiet sufferance and stoicism with virtue. All of this culminated in scapegoating the common people who supposedly spent more than they should have, were lazy and who supposedly caused the crisis rather than banks recklessness and government management. This in turn, caused many to distance themselves from protests, significant dissent or solidarity, indifference and even hostility towards those suffering the most from the crisis and austerity measures as well as to those organizing to fight them. All of this made for a bitter wake up call for me. It made me see my compatriots with completely different eyes and to set the bar very low when it comes to the expectations of collective solidarity in times of crisis.
With analysts warning of another looming financial crisis, many fear Portugal could once again be engulfed by social strife, this time in what is being described as a potential “perfect storm” as current political trend sees democracies veering to the right, even in the absence of a major economic crisis. Analysts warn this can lead to unpredicted and worrying consequences at the social level.
During the crisis that affected Portugal along countries such as Greece, Spain and Ireland, the then incumbent Portuguese conservative government — along with less vulnerable sections of the Portuguese population —, sought to distance Portugal from Greece in an attempt to convey an image of "good student" to international creditors in comparison to Greece. However, such attitude towards the most vulnerable European country at the time was seen by the more vulnerable population as lacking in solidarity and as an arrogant attitude of the government towards Greece.
Men watch a quarter-finals match between Portugal and Czech Republic during the 2012 UEFA European Championship at a café in Lisbon.
Austerity policies and budget cuts have caused rising numbers of unemployed and cuts in pensions. Registered unemployment among active population reached 18% in 2013.
On football:
[ “When I was in high school I asked myself at one point: "Why do I care if my high school's team wins the football game? I don't know anybody on the team, they have nothing to do with me... why am I here and applaud? It does not make any sense." But the point is, it does make sense: It's a way of building up irrational attitudes of submission to authority and group cohesion behind leadership elements. In fact it's training in irrational jingoism. That's also a feature of competitive sports.”
― Noam Chomsky ]
A homeless, seemingly ill person has a meal [right] while lying on the floor of a bus stop in downtown Lisbon, where a commuter [left] waits for a bus. Behind the bus stop, residents and tourists eat at a gourmet market promoting national products such as wines, sausages, traditional pastry and handicrafts.
Dois agentes da polícia vigiam uma festa popular onde duas trabalhadoras de etnia cigana vendem brinquedos e balões. Vila Real de Trás-os-Montes, 8 de Julho de 2017
O Conselho da Europa apresentou a 2 de Outubro de 2018 um relatório em que, apesar de apontar vários aspetos positivos sobre a situação geral no país, conclui que "a polícia [em Portugal] tolera racismo e que as denúncias não são investigadas a fundo". O documento critica o Estado português por "tolerar racismo da polícia". O Conselho mostra-se ainda preocupado com o que conclui ser uma infiltração da extrema-direita na polícia pública e a presença de elementos no corpo policial que simpatizam com discursos de ódio, racistas e homofóbicos.
O Conselho Europeu recomenda a criação de um organismo independente que investigue a violência policial e o racismo. "A Comissão para a Igualdade e Contra a Discriminação Racial (CICDR) não é independente, salienta a ECRI que manifesta igualmente dúvidas quanto à independência de entidades como a Inspeção-Geral da Administração Interna (IGAI) ou o Alto Comissariado para as Migrações (ACM), com competências para receber queixas, investigar e propor sanções, mas com dependência direta do Executivo".
The leader of far right movement New Social Order fronts a group of forty participants in front of the Portuguese parliament building during a demonstration held in homage of late Portuguese fascist dictator Oliveira Salazar. Lisbon, February 1st 2019
João Pais do Amaral, deputy president of the "National Renewal Party" [PNR], a small ultranationalist far-right party, confronts and threatens a Portuguese-Palestinian protester after the latter booed the marchers and called those participating in it “racists” and “fascists”. Police intervened in defense of Amaral and of the march, describing it "as legal and orderly", after which they forcibly removed the protester.
NOTES: Teenage participants of the march threatened to follow and attack me and a bystander for taking photos of the altercation. They also told me “you journalists are getting fucked in the ass by the jews”.
Some former members of the party served sentences for racial discrimination and violent crimes, including involvement in the murder of José Carvalho, a leader of the left wing party PSR, and the racist murder of young Cape Verdean Alcino Monteiro, and of involvement with armed extreme far-right nationalist and neo-Nazi groups such as the Portuguese National Front and Hammerskin. In recent years, and as the PNR tries to position itself in mainstream politics, the party has expelled members with known connections to these groups.
Contrary to the trend of the rest of Europe, far-right parties have remained almost residual in Portugal. On the one hand the resentment many feel towards the center-right for their austerity led government during the economic crisis in Portugal has lingered among the wider public. On the other, the constituencies targeted by more nationalist and far-right parties have remained loyal to the center-right due to conservatives tendency to adopt at least some of the most populist discourse that could otherwise lead some to veer to the far-right.
However, this might change. In a 2018 poll, 27% of those enquired say they would consider changing their vote for the far-right.
A monument located in the Empire Square of Porto, in honor of the Portugal’s "colonizing effort" of the overseas territories that Portugal occupied between the XIV and XX centuries, is defaced with red graffiti spelling the word “oppressor”.
NOTES: The widespread prevalence of monuments commemorating Portugal’s colonial past throughout the country, demonstrates lack of sensitivity, to say the least, towards Portugal’s problematic past and to the Portuguese black communities from the former colonies.
Delirious, self-complacent myths prevail among the general Portuguese population such as Portugal as the “benevolent colonizer” or the “non racist colonizer” when compared to the other colonizing powers.
This is symptomatic of a prevalent lack of collective and individual self-criticism in Portugal.
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A obra, que foi concebida e executada por Sousa Caldas e Alferes Alberto Ponce de Castro para a Exposição Colonial no Palácio de Cristal em 1934, apareceu pintada com tinta vermelha nas mãos da figuras representadas e com palavras como “opressor”.
Numa altura em que se questiona a pertinência de uma perspetiva nacional sobre a colonização em que, segundo a crítica, prevalece o perpetuar sistematizado de mitos luso-tropicalistas e racistas em Portugal sobre o papel português na história das nações que colonizou e das populações escravizadas, monumentos como este têm sido alvo de protestos pela sua permanência em espaço público.
Num relatório publicado pelo Conselho da Europa em Outubro de 2018 é recomendado a Portugal "repensar o ensino da história e, em particular, a história das ex-colónias". O mesmo relatório defende que o "contributo dos afrodescendentes, assim como dos ciganos, para a sociedade portuguesa deve ser tratado" nos manuais escolares, sendo que os livros dos alunos portugueses devem passar a abordar a violência de Portugal contra os indígenas das colónias.