When the January 26, 1996 edition of O Independente hit the newsstands, on one of those Fridays when the weekly magazine that gave ministers insomnia during the cavaquismo tried to have the same effect as the socialist government of António Guterres, Paulo Portas was not yet president of the CDS. He had left the leadership the year before to join the lists of deputies of the party of which he would become historical leader from 1998, but he continued to write an opinion page every week and remained present for the same readers who would hardly have done so . They were struck by who had at their disposal the first text published in a national newspaper by a young university professor of International Relations, who could have even less imagined that 27 years later he would be competing for the leadership of the PS.
It was on page 45 of this edition that José Luís Carneiro, the current Minister of the Interior and the only socialist willing to confront Pedro Nuno Santos in the unexpected succession of António Costa, began four years of journalistic collaboration, always dedicated to international themes. . More specifically, African issues, precisely the area of his master’s degree, after completing his degree in International Relations. The first of hundreds of news articles, entitled Santuário de Jonas, described how Savimbi, the leader of UNITA, demanded guarantees of personal safety to meet eternal enemy José Eduardo dos Santos, President of Angola, in Windhoek, Namibia. and the MPLA.
“I was not the one who wrote the titles and entries,” stressed José Luís Carneiro, and he also appreciated “the joy of the first published text,” in statements to Diário de Notícias. Without ever hiding the fact that his CV includes collaboration with O Independente, a weekly magazine founded by Miguel Esteves Cardoso and Paulo Portas, which brought together and modernized the right in the 1990s, but had the ‘Ponto Finale’ as the headline of the last edition. On September 1, 2006, the 52-year-old Minister of the Interior goes back to 1996 to remember how he “was recruited to Lusíada University” by the weekly magazine then run by Isaías Gomes Teixeira. He points out that these and other texts he wrote have the characteristic of being “too academic”, but the truth is that “Santuário de Jonas” cited UNITA sources.
Going to the editorial office of O Independente on Wednesday, the day when the pages on international themes close, became one of the routines of the young university professor who left good memories for those who met him in the building on Rua António Pedro, just behind the Portuguese brewery. “The editor reviewed them and the titles were never mine,” insists someone who never qualified for a professional journalist’s license and was always paid in green vouchers.
But the lack of a link did not prevent the news that José Luís Carneiro wrote in the next edition, on February 2, from gaining the right to open a section. “Mundo de Necessidades” revealed that Admiral Fuzeta da Ponte, then Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, would visit Angola the following month. Citing diplomatic and MPLA sources, no more identified by name than those appearing on the vast majority of the weekly’s other pages, the text revealed two of the constants of the author’s journalistic career: the prevalence of reporting on the complex Angolan reality, in the aftermath of the massacre of thousands of UNITA leaders, militants and supporters after the 1992 general elections, and the capture of a network of contacts in diplomatic circles and in Portuguese-speaking African countries that would feed many pages .
There was also room for the ‘more analytical writing’ expected of those who prioritized an academic career. “Black Numbers”, the third text he published in O Independente on February 9, 1996, devoted two pages to the reality of Mozambique, explaining that “the country of [Joaquim] Chissano and [Afonso] Dhlakama will continue to foot the bill for the war between Frelimo and Renamo.” But even in this report there were mentions of sources of power and opposition.
Sharing the agenda of the persistently postponed conclave between Dos Santos and Savimbi or pointing out the scenario in which then South African President Nelson Mandela would take advantage of a visit to Luanda to bring together ‘the two hostile brothers’ were among the journalistic caches of the future ruler, of which he admits in Diário de Notícias that cooperation and development was “a calling he had”. The same one that led him to specialize in African affairs.
CPLP pioneer
It was far from a secret to those with whom he worked that the political orientation of José Luís Carneiro – also an employee of the weekly Vasco Rato, his professor in the International Relations degree – they knew that he was from the PS, ‘but he was a good student and that was the most important thing” -, in the weekly collaborations he also addressed the actions of his supporters who were then in the Palácio das Necessidades. On March 15, 1996, the section was reopened with “Gama protagonismo”, announcing that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jaime Gama, had opened the doors to the visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Lamego. “But Portugal takes little part in the peace efforts in Angola,” read the text, which explains that the country ranks seventh when it comes to military cooperation.
He also stands out in the memories of those who aspire to become the second party leader to emerge from the pages of O Independente and to dismantle the cronyism of Pedro Nuno Santos in the direct elections scheduled by the PS for December 16 and 17 . was one of the first to highlight the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) in the national press. On July 12, 1996, he left a message in the news “Portugal ultramarino”, in one of those titles he was not aware of: “The CPLP will be born next Wednesday. However, it remains to be seen who will pay for it. because no one seems willing to open their wallets.”
For those who still did some interviews, the most memorable of which was with UNITA leader Isaías Samakuva, the collaboration ended in 1999, when visits to the newsroom to write the texts passed to the Porto delegation, where they also made friends which he still has. . With the weekly magazine, then directed by Inês Serra Lopes, who had succeeded Constança Cunha e Sá, now in broadsheet format and with an international supplement, José Luís Carneiro continued to specialize in African affairs, supplementing the reports of special envoys to Angola . And he had enough well-informed sources to have him write on December 4, 1998 that ‘the MPLA Congress may give the green light to President José Eduardo dos Santos to launch the ‘final attack’ on Jonas Savimbi’s forces in the strongholds . of Andulo and Bailundo”.
The journalistic adventure came to an end when José Luís Carneiro became advisor to Manuel Diogo and then deputy secretary of state to the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Gomes. A year earlier, in 1998, he was elected councilor without responsibility in the Baião Chamber, and remained so until he won the municipality and chaired it from 2005 to 2015. He became increasingly involved in party life and was chairman of the PS Porto Federation and the National Association of Socialist Mayors. In the field of Foreign Affairs, about which he wrote so often, he was Secretary of State of the Portuguese Communities between 2015 and 2019. Before he became Minister of the Interior, and is now looking for the ninth general secretary of the PS.
Source: DN
