“Oh sir, I won’t talk about it.” The phrase was repeated dozens of times. ‘A portrait of me? Don’t think about it.’ The refusal was almost constant.
– So we’re talking without pictures?
The answer only came many minutes later and after I had explained very well what I wanted.
– I just wanted to know what has changed in Madeira, what you think.
The request often had a simple answer: “Look around.” Other times it was clear after a few minutes of conversation that the articulated speech – very similar phrases – had an origin: party activism in the PSD and PS.
Nélio, he said when first approached, is standing on a terrace on the edge of Funchal’s city garden. White shirt, brown pants, black shoes, blazer hanging on the chair, listen to what I want and ask me not to talk there. He explains to me that he works in the “public service”. He puts out his cigarette, drinks his coffee and points to the garden: ‘There after the stairs, on a bench like that.’ I go upstairs and wait.
– Why this secrecy?, I ask.
‘I don’t see myself talking to journalists. Certainly not with you who come from the continent.’ I stick to the question. The answer is similar to the complaints that former and current opposition leaders, especially socialists, make about governance during elections: “Pressure, threats, conditioning of the vote.”
I confirm the identity and work in the “public service”. For almost half an hour he reports on situations of ‘favor and friendship’, that he has already filed ‘anonymous complaints’, but that ‘justice does not work’. When he gets up, he claims to be late and promises to send “some documents” that “no one here gets anything.”
Nélio, his name is not his real name, is, according to the 2021 census, part of the 20% of Madeira’s population who are 65 years or older (in 2011 this was 14.9%). Current data also shows that for every 100 young people in the archipelago, there are 157 elderly people.
Ernesto, whom I meet outside the busy streets of Funchal, calls himself ‘pragmatic’ and does not hide his disillusionment, which is not only directed against the PSD – the opposition is also joining in because ‘all he knows is bad say things’. and that is not always the case.”
The explanation appears without hesitation in one sentence. It seems like he’s talking to someone far away. His eyes are focused on the horizon. He speaks, gestures and only at the end does he look at me. “It’s not all bad, we won’t say that. There are works that are carried out there, with less need or less urgency, and there are works with a greater need that are postponed. [Alberto João] Jardim did it, no one can deny that. The money was well spent, but the opposition sometimes only knows how to say bad things. Now the opposition may be right when they say that they could do more work with that money,” he says.
– And Miguel Albuquerque?, I ask.
“Albuquerque continues to do what the Jardim did. You don’t see anything new. That’s how it is, nothing changes. What am I going to vote for? They only govern for tourists, not for Madeirans,” he says.
Emanuel responds to questions with questions: “Who made Madeira evolve? It was Jardim, you have to see. I’m not going to say anything bad about him, even if he did some things badly.” Ernesto’s disillusionment is also reflected in the words of Emanuel, who summarizes the parties in one word: ‘They’. “I don’t see anyone with the determination to help the people. Only for them they just pull sardines for them. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, you know why? Those who have money can invest, Those who don’t have it , just look at it,” he complains. And then the praise for Alberto João Jardim who “wants to make Madeira evolve. This now [Miguel Albuquerque] what the other did will end.”
And when I question him, to know why he thinks this way, the answer comes again with questions, but this time he looks straight at me: ‘Who is helping? No one. Do you know someone? He just makes some arrangements and those luxury apartments for tourism, for foreigners.”
Source: DN
