Maria Teresa Horta passed away on February 4th of this year. Poet and journalist, she denounced the political and sexual repression of the fascist-Catholic regime that Salazar invented. The book New Portuguese Letterswhich he wrote with Maria Velho da Costa and Maria Isabel Barreno, exposed the oppressive role of women in the Estado Novo. The “three Marias” were taken to court. After the 25th of April, Horta continued, brilliantly, to use literature as a territory for social intervention — always feminist, always democratic.
Domestic violence and wage inequality between men and women are one of the biggest injustices of the 21st century in Portugal.
Nuno Portas passed away on July 27th. Architect. After the 25th of April, he joined the first provisional governments as Secretary of State for Housing. His action had a lasting impact: he led the SAAL project, promoting self-construction, participatory urbanism and social housing, defending the right to housing as a pillar of democratic dignity.
The unbearable cost of housing is one of the social dramas of the 21st century.
António Borges Coelho passed away on October 17th. Historian. He was arrested by PIDE in 1956, when he was a PCP employee. After leaving prison six and a half years later, he was banned from teaching until the 25th of April. After the Revolution, he dedicated himself to building a plural and critical narrative, giving voice to those forgotten in official history – Moors, Jews, peasants, workers. He was one of the first professors to establish democratic practices in classes and in university academic governance.
The revision of Portuguese history to “soften” the reputation of Portuguese fascism is progressing in this 21st century.
Francisco Pinto Balsemão passed away on October 22nd. He founded Expresso in 1973, when prior censorship was still in force, and gave space to critical voices of Marcelo Caetano’s government. After the 25th of April, he was one of the founders of the Popular Democratic Party (current PSD). He was prime minister between 1981 and 1983. He founded SIC. He defended freedom of expression, the professionalization of journalism and the direct relationship between the press and the defense of democracy.
The lack of ideological plurality in Portuguese media, intolerance to criticism and the influence of social networks in shaping public opinion are killing journalism in the 21st century.
Laborinho Lúcio passed away on October 23rd. He was Minister of Justice in Cavaco Silva’s government. He invested in the training of magistrates and the independence of the judiciary. He has always defended accessible, pedagogical and modern justice. In interviews and essays he insisted that democracy cannot survive without justice that citizens understand and respect.
The cost of justice, the manipulation of judicial secrecy and the exasperating delay of processes are killing, in the 21st century, the credibility of the Portuguese State.
All these people, with such different ideologies, who fought or allied according to their convictions or interests, are part of a generation that is rapidly disappearing and that built, with the Portuguese people, the most notable work of this country achieved in the 20th century: the 25th of April and democracy regulated by the Constitution.
I look at the public figures of my generation and the generations that follow. I think about what we are doing in this 21st century and I realize: we are not worthy of them.
Journalist
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