Monday 5 June is Environment Day. It is just after ten o’clock in the morning when Inês Sousa Real arrives at Campo Grande (by electric car), the meeting point before departure for the first initiative of the day. Two members of the National Political Commission await the spokesperson: “Today I am the driver,” said Pedro Fidalgo, member of the National Political Commission (CPN) – bones of the trade in a small party. Once the journey had begun, it wasn’t long before a smiling Inês Sousa Real, who arrived in Vienna, Austria the day before, from the meeting where the PAN was accepted as a supporter of the European Greens, began to break the news: “It was very encouraging, we had 91% of the vote, we were the party with the most votes”, it counts and will be repeated throughout the day, when other PAN members join the entourage.
It is not the first time that the PAN has tried to join the European Greens, but the previous process has stalled for the departure of Francisco Guerreiro’s party, elected to the European Parliament in the 2019 elections. Inês Sousa Real calls it “growing pains” and promises to be extra careful when choosing the next candidate: “It will have to be someone who is deeply committed to the values of PAN”. WHO? “There is still a long way to go, we still have the elections in Madeira…”.
Even this Monday, the day of the week when the parliamentary work of the leader and sole deputy of the PAN gives way to visits around the country, part of the journey is made mobile phone in hand, with the deputy taking a final look at the five proposals the party will present in parliament, on the occasion of the Day of the Environment. “We use Monday and Friday afternoons to make the visits,” he says, introducing a mantra that he repeats: “There’s no point being locked in there between four walls, you can’t decide that way “, “you can’t make laws like that”.
11:10 am
It is 11:10 am when the visit to the Montejunto Wild Animal Recovery Center, in Cadaval, the “poor relatives of the animal and environmental protection” begins. No big shows”It’s already one habit“, says a person in charge of the reception upon arrival), but with immediate complaints — and much outrage — about how the mountain serves as a scene for fox slayings, “bomb slashes,” and how many wild animals illegally held in captivity arrive there. “Can we go see the resident boys?” asks the PAN leader.
The “resident boys” are diverse. Blackbirds, crows, a pheasant (“This one was in a cage so small its wing was deformed,” the center vet tells us), a kestrel (“when he arrived he had no feathers, they cut off his feathers so that he wouldn’t run away”). “And foxes?” asks Inês Sousa Real. There is a little fox, still small, with a broken leg, that was picked up on the road. “How is anyone able to harm such an animal, this is a crime,” he protests. The deputy sheriff’s favorite resident is found: “It’s not allowed, if I didn’t take you”. “I don’t know, your cat…”, sounds from the entourage, between laughter.
The visit to the center, that usually serves as a shelter for more than 50 animals – and whose ultimate goal is to release them back into the wild – still kites and owls pass by. And again the incomprehension: “I don’t understand how someone can take such an animal and lock it in a cage”. The veterinarian, Inês Silveira, says that “it is often not out of malice, but out of ignorance”, to which Inês Sousa Real replies that “it was fundamental that school curricula had this dimension”. Also in the center are three hedgehogs (and they were others who, if possible, had found a home with the PAN staff) and a buzzard-winged eagle. “And what do you think of the Vitória eagle, from Benfica?”, discharges someone to the vet. There is a moment of tension, the topic is hot: “I don’t know, I should judge the stress level …”. “We get complaints from people who think the animal is stressed. We will have a greeting mood, we have to evaluate…”, contextualizes Inês Sousa Real.
Hot topics are not missing from the PAN agenda. Two are perfectly identified: hunting and bullfighting. Whenever one of them comes on the agenda, the number of more or less abusive protest emails sent to the party is sure to skyrocket. A little later, Inês Sousa tells Real laughing the most original “gift” they ever received at party HQ was a box… of fertilizer. Nothing to worry environmentalists about: “We benefited”. And he’s still smiling as he unravels some of the messages he receives from memory: “I’ll order my plate”, “Leave my steak alone”…”Hey man, order it on your plate, we don’t want don’t impose anything on anyone. We want people to be aware that there is a diet that is more sustainable for the planet. But having said that, he changes his tone: “In two cases I have filed a criminal complaint, which is ongoing, in one is already an accusation. They were recurring, with death threats.” The entourage remembers moments of greater tension, in Montijo and at Beja airport. “In Montijo they tried to stop a campaign. And the police were bad, but we continued,” the PAN leader recalls, recalling that a banner had been posted at Montijo parties saying “The PAN and Inês Sousa Real are not welcome”. But these cases, adds the alternate, are “the exception and not the rule” That is for relationships to be “cordial”.
12:30 p.m
It is half past three when the visit is over. Meanwhile, the search for a nearby vegetarian restaurant leads the entourage to Torres Vedras. Inês Sousa Real regrets that the plane’s delay the day before gave rise to plans to make banana bread with chocolate for the road. At lunch he asks about vegan food, has a chickpea and sweet potato burger, fries and salad – like almost the entire entourage, with the exception of a vegetarian francesinha who opens the conversation about the best restaurants with this delicacy and ends up in a restaurant in Benedita with a divine mushroom soup. There is still a lot of word of mouth about good vegetarian food in Portugal.
It is almost three o’clock in the afternoon when we leave Torres Vedras towards Lisbon, passing by the PAN headquarters to collect the seed bombs that will be distributed later in the afternoon in Cais Sodré. Right, but… seed bombs, what do you mean?! “Don’t they call us environmental radicals?” Ulisses, a militant, ironizes, already at the party headquarters, on Avenida Almirante Reis, in Lisbon. “We are very activist. In the beginning we met with the Entidade das Contas, who created a section dedicated to the “strange” things of the PAN,” the party spokesperson had already said.
5:00 PM
The front door of the PAN, which leads directly to the avenue, is flanked by two tents belonging to two homeless women. “We help where we can. In the end, we are a door to help. Daily life is not easy, it is hard,” says Inês Sousa Real, speaking in a “exponential increase of people on the street”, which goes hand in hand with the increase in requests for help reaching the party – “It is very visible, with the rise in the cost of living and interest rates, people are experiencing many difficulties”.
Inside, right at the entrance, a clock is counting down. A climate clock: this Monday afternoon, Day of the Environment, six years, 46 days, 23 hours and 27 minutes remain to close the time window to prevent the effects of global warming from becoming irreversible. Pretext for a question: “What about the Minister of the Environment?”. Inês Sousa Real shrugs – “It’s much less than what it could do. We expected more. We expected more dialogue”.
The waiting time until the next initiative is used to catch up on correspondence, write down the agenda for the next outings. And behold, the makers of the seed bombs arrive. Namely, small patterns made from toilet paper rolls, which remain in a ball of earth “with a little clay to solidify”, with seeds of perennials, flowers, rosemary, chamomile. There are several hundred and long hours of work in it – “I had done it before, but I had never done it in series,” says Raquel Esteves from the Lisbon district. Seed bombs are distributed in cloth bags. It’s time to leave for Cais do Sodré.
It is 5.45 pm when eight members of the PAN (plus the dog Pipinho who will stop some passers-by on his own), armed with flags, line up at the exit of the subway and train to hand out seed bombs: “I can offer some seeds to plant?” May I offer you a seed bomb? We need more flowers in the city, we need more bees.” The response alternates between mistrust or a hasty refusal and those who want to know more or have a chat. “Let’s try it with the boys at school” , answer two educators. There is a lady who wants to donate a few coins to PAN to help feed the animals.
Shortly after 6:30 pm we had no more seeds to hand out. A selfie closes the initiative and daily work of the PAN leader. More or less. There will be time later to prepare the next day’s speeches in Parliament. It won’t just be a date: it’s Inês Sousa Real’s birthday.
Source: DN
