What a lack of common sense

I watched the interview that Gouveia e Melo gave this week on a television channel and, regardless of whether I want to vote for his candidacy or not, it became obvious that what attracts the population to give him their preference, which we have verified through the known polls, has essentially to do with the reasonableness and common sense on which his entire speech is based.

He claimed to be a defender of institutions and democracy, against any authoritarianism, a defender of a moderate stance on most political issues, and a disbeliever of the most extreme solutions that equate right-wing and left-wing populism.

He declared himself pro-life, both on the issue of euthanasia and voluntary termination of pregnancy, and affirmed respect for the constitution, the executive branch, and the right to govern for whoever wins the elections.

Opposed to a presidential intervention when there are parliamentary majorities, in short, a stance that will not be very innovative or disruptive for the majority of the Portuguese people, but which probably does not differ much from what the people of this country think.

I do not intend to know whether, with this interview, Admiral Gouveia e Melo managed to win the majority of voters for his election as President of the Republic, what I know is that, from what I heard, everything seemed to make sense, to be serious, to be well structured and logical for the common citizen.

Interestingly, at the end of the interview, and listening to the commentators about their evaluation of the candidate's statements, the vast majority of them, certainly all on the left, tried to find errors in what was said.

Because Gouveia e Melo did not distance himself sufficiently from Ventura, because he did not propose to question Montenegro as being capable of carrying out the role of Prime Minister, because he wanted to take the issue of euthanasia to the constitutional court, all this as if in fact nothing new had happened in the last elections and as if the left continued to have the unfortunate ability to dominate what we can or cannot do and say in our country.

It is very sad to see that, after the people decided to clearly change the political face of our Portugal, in which they transferred a constant dominance of the left over the right to a very clear right-wing majority in which, even the Democratic Alliance, which did not obtain an absolute majority, managed to have more deputies than the entire left combined, the intelligent commentators on television, with few exceptions, continue in their ideological blindness, convinced that if they continue to say the same thing, everything will go back to how it was.

Of the issues discussed in this interview, the one that left me most perplexed about this autistic attitude towards the current political reality was the reference in an aggressively critical tone, by a commentator, to the issue of abortion law.

The admiral said when confronted about the issue of euthanasia that he is clearly pro-life and that, even so, he understood that there are always circumstances that have to be considered and that, for this reason, he considered this one of the most difficult issues to make a decision on.

Based on the same considerations, he stated, when faced with the issue of reforming the abortion law, that the existing law already meets the needs of Portuguese society and that there is no need to revisit its discussion.

It was painful to watch the absurd effort on the part of the commentator in question to try to prove that this issue should be put on the table again because, she believes, the abortion law not only does not reach her but also believes that it is at risk of being further restricted.

Has this lady not realized that if the abortion law is discussed again, there will be a reaction from the electorate in the same way that the vote in the legislative elections was expressed?

Does she believe that by continuing to shout that she is right, the people will change their conviction that left-wing solutions are exhausted and that they will no longer pursue old promises that no longer satisfy them?

But will television channels also continue to sponsor this ongoing stance of revisionism of reality that not only lacks any common sense, but also systematically promotes populism due to the abundance we all have of this absurd domain of lies and distortion of reality?

The proposal to discuss abortion is more likely to be interesting to the right than to the left.

Political correctness promotes disruption, not stability.

Political truth does not belong to journalists, commentators or politicians.

That is why it is important that we have the opportunity to hear all candidates equally – in a democracy there are no winners from the outset.

Only the common sense of telling the truth can be the path to development for Portugal.