Last Sunday, at the end of the significant election night, it occurred to me that life takes many turns. It’s true, life has the gift of surprising us and shaking the certainties that, so often, don’t stand the test of time. I think of the elected President of the Republic, António José Seguro. And in what is almost ceasing to be, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. What unites them, and what had to happen to get here.
Marcelo will always be my professor of Political Science and Administrative Law, one of the people who believed most in my youth, it is impossible to forget his recommendation that I be the student chosen to go to the University of Leuven. He was the President of people and empathy who, unfortunately, was unable to transform all this virtuality into a movement of thought and consistent action. Sometimes he failed to think. In others, in action. And, on two or three occasions, in thought and action.
But what is certain is that it created the seeds of an idea of hope and decency that would have contributed to Seguro’s result last Sunday – two thirds of Portuguese society voted for an idea of Good, of freedom and fraternity, of humanism and democracy. It is Marcelo’s legacy, a movement or, if you prefer, an organized dynamic of hope embodied in the descent of Avenida da Liberdade when the country, from left to right, celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April.
Marcelo failed, but we will miss him for being Unique. It’s not even possible to imitate him. He represented the Republic and did it very well. He prepared himself all his life and knew how to be at home in the halls of the rich and in every room of the poor. He knew how to catch the train at the point of his life and gave everything he had to the country.
Unforgettable when we walk together through the pandemic. It contributed to the country’s self-esteem, without being able to prevent the growth of resentment and extremism. In my opinion, because it is what it is. For having in his condition what made him unique, but also what destroyed the possibility of stopping the winds of time: Marcelo is genuinely someone who is present when he embraces, but he is a soloist in a time when an orchestra is necessary.
This is a huge opportunity for António José Seguro, with whom I have a relationship of esteem and consideration. He knows Torres Vedras and its Caixa Agrícola well. I met him a few weeks ago at Dr.’s funeral. Brilhante Dias, father of the current leader of the socialist bench. There were few of us at that farewell and, after a few days, he expressed appreciation for the social work carried out here. I hope that the elected President of the Republic will forgive me for my inconfidence, but at a time when I did not have my current functions, I was part of a team that convinced him to head a ticket for another Caixa Agrícola… it ended up not happening for reasons that are now irrelevant, but the possibility of having a President of the Republic with links to cooperativism was lost.
It was an extraordinary trip to Seguro. Six months ago he had 6% of voting intentions. Last Sunday, he broke the record for voters in a single election. He made no mistakes in the campaign, he proved to be a decent man without a glass ceiling, he also proved to be capable of building bridges, of uniting, of perceiving the signs of the time. I believe that he will take advantage of the opportunity of History, that he will take advantage of the seeds planted by Marcelo to build concrete hope, based on action and change.
Seguro has three advantages: he seems to benefit from a pact with destiny, he has no political ties that bind him, and he is not a soloist. He is someone who works with others, deciding on their own terms, but being able to function as a conductor of an orchestra capable of rediscovering our common destiny. A destiny made for the future and not appealing to the past. We don’t need the Estado Novo, but we also don’t need the old intervention songs as antidotes against the lack of poetry.
This is not just a change of protagonists, but a change of cadence. Marcelo represented presence, empathy and the unique ability to touch the real country. Insurance inherits, however, a distinct challenge: transforming symbolic capital into consequential direction. It’s the difference between the soloist and the conductor.
Freedom is an achievement. It needs to be fed with new ideas, new words, new songs, new protagonists. And people have to be at the center, people are everything and we can’t give up on any of them… even those who seem lost because they’ve lost so much. How to reach people who seem unreachable and unavailable to be more than their own belly button?
Nos Karamazov brothersDostoevsky’s masterpiece, faith and morals clash with the human condition and the conclusion is definitive: it is much more difficult to love your neighbor than Humanity, after all it is infinitely simpler to love an abstraction. It is yet another challenge for the President of the Republic to maintain the institutional distance that guarantees respect, without losing the ability to be close to real people, suffering and real desires. We need a shock of collective freedom, not more firewood to fuel the ego’s maelstrom, the illusion that we are worth something alone.
Portugal is a huge country. With a very strong and almost ancient identity. We have to reconnect with our destiny, not leave it to extremists who defend the opposite of what we are, thinking they are in line with what we are. António José Seguro needs to base his influence on youth, in schools, in the places where kids meet. It must stimulate General States of thought, be the spokesperson for a cult of trust, but of demand – our children need to realize that nothing is instantaneous.
This relationship between hope and organization is fundamental. Diffuse hope mobilizes; structured hope transforms.
We must have the ability to transform moral capital into institutional capital. And this requires method, demand and, above all, continuity between thought and action.
Seguro has said that if the policy is not used to solve problems, it is of absolutely no use. And truth. But if the President forgets culture, thought, science, the cult of memory and the future, then no life will be born in Belém either.
The President-elect has his hands free. There can be a balance on your boat that only a plurality of opinions and experiences can guarantee. This is a revolutionary time. Unique in our History. Maybe a little like the 1960s, post-World War, when everything seemed to be in balance. Europe was buzzing with the battle of thoughts, there were cafes where philosophy, politics, economics and society were discussed. It was our common ground, democracy (and peace) in Europe flourished from conflict and courage of thought. Europe is tearing us apart, but we can and must have cards to play. Marcelo wanted to do it, but perhaps, as so often in history, it is the apparently less complex men who sometimes win the most difficult battles.
In a time of radical individualism and social fragmentation, rebuilding spaces of belonging and shared responsibility may be one of the few credible paths to restoring collective trust, but this will involve moving beyond rhetoric and into concrete architecture: education, local finance, social economy and civic culture.
My friend Edgar Morin talks about “rethinking”. I agree with him, let’s rethink ourselves. Why not, from Belém? Encouraged by a President with a new age. In the certainty that nothing can be done without cooperativism, the strongest branch of humanism that we need. We need to go back to the roots, the earth, the humus. And not forgetting slowness, the only way we can think of going faster. A bit like the real fable of the Indians of São Paulo, on the Piratininga plateau, when they refused to go as fast as was the wish of Father Anchieta, Spanish Jesuit, founder of the city. The Indian chief’s voice echoed to this day: “We have come quickly, but our soul was left behind. We now have to wait for the soul to return to the body.”
After all, a single question is decisive: what does time ask of us? What does time ask of you, dear President-elect? What does time ask of me? And what about you who reads me?
President of the Torres Vedras Mutual Agricultural Credit Bank
manuel.guerreiro@ccamtv.pt
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