Tuesday, 8 September 2015

The fear-factor - Sócrates!

Ex-socialist PM, ex-prisoner is awaiting his moment of vengence
António Costa, socialist candidate for PM

The Socialist party is in denial. 
The PS denies everything, does not admit anything. 
It seems that they have lost the cardinal points 
or have a failed political compass. 
They speak of a country that does not exist. 
António Costa depreciates, insults, and screams. 
Without realizing the dissonance between the use of these
 political instruments and reality. 
There is something terribly dated in  the socialist leader, 
António Costa's more and more strident tone, 
anyone listening to him, would become immediately suspicious. 
It would be much more interesting to explain in a human voice, 
how the socialist plan to pay Social Security with road toll taxes. 
Or what will the socialist do, 
if the increase in domestic demand (of largely imported stuff), 
in which they so firmly believe, 
to obtain money which simply does not exist. 
The PS is having a ball. 
Or rather, it's a soap opera!

Sócrates was released from prison.
Everyone is still reeling in shock at the unexpected.
It couldn´t have come at a worst time for a divided, badly run,
socialist election campaign.

Revenge is in the air, bettings are rife, there are rival camps 
and the air stinks of  fear of what Socrates will tell and reveal? 
Whatever is said, the throttle hold is been squeezed 
round António Costa´s neck. 
If you agree with the Socialist leader, 
if you applaud and say good things of him, 
you may be embarrassed. It would also embarrass Costa. 
It would hinder him. If you say anything bad, 
whole audiences will be against you, 
and it will only bring excitement within the social media. 
Whatever you would say, you would split the main stage 
of the socialist campaign with António Costa. 
Only with a miracle, would that produce good results.

The long knives are out.
Who will win in the end?
The power struggle in the socialist´s camp
has never been so fierce!

It is unacceptable for a politician, 
using the power of the positions that he occupies 
or the influence he has in the judicial system, 
to attempt to interfere in the Socrates process. 
But since when is a discussion about the political dimensions 
of a case interference with justice? 
Is Justice, by any chance, a form of censorship?

But there is a fact that has been acknowledged by Socrates 
and his fellow accussed: 
For years, José Sócrates secretly received money from Carlos Santos Silva. 
Socrates´ defense lawyers, treats this as a private matter, 
a relationship between friends. 
But Socrates was the general secretary of the Socialist Party 
and Prime Minister of Portugal 
and Carlos Santos Silva was the Lena Group administrator. 
In other words, 
Portugal had a prime minister and the PS a general secretary, 
whose expenses were paid secretly by the administrator 
of a company doing business with the state. 
This may be a judicial question, 
if that money had origin in corruption, 
but it should always be, 
and therefore considered to be a political issue, 
to be discussed politically. 
In other countries,  it would be neither normal nor acceptable.
 Is it acceptable here? 
What does the Socialists have to say about this fact? Is it acceptable or not? 
What do the other parties have to say? Do they find it acceptable? 
Do they find it typical? And if all parties find it acceptable and normal, 
what should we, the citizens, think of all this - 
and what should we think of the politicians 
who condone these practices of corruption?

Unfortunately, Portugal has long lived with a kind of 
democratica claustrophobia.

Socrates was a kind of Putin without oil, 
and it should be noted that his reign only ended 
when the debt crisis in 2011 brought him  
and the country to its knees, 
when he had to beg for and international bail-out program. 
This deprived him of the means of making payments 
and promoting corrupt business deals. 
The end of Socratism was not a matter of civic resistance, 
but a lack of treasury funds.

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