On Monday, as part of the PND delegation, I went to a meeting with President Cavaco Silva, to discuss the dates for the forthcoming regional elections. It was, of course, an opportunity to discuss other matters as well and I duly raised the case of the continued violation of the election laws by President Jardim: namely the misuse of official events, such as inaugurations, for party-political propaganda. I emphasized that the speeches made were not typical political speeches about priorities and measures to be taken, but were usually limited to diatribes, labeling the opposition ‘enemies of the people’, ‘enemies of progress’, ‘colonialists’, ‘collaborators’, ‘saboteurs’, ‘fascists’, ‘agents-provocateurs’, ‘traitors’ and so on. Such speeches, voiced in exalted tones, are no more than an incitement to hatred and have sometimes contained explicit incitements to violence. Free, fair and informed elections are impossible when such abuses of the President’s duty to be impartial occur.
President Cavaco expressed the wish that the atmosphere of calm and serenity on the mainland would extend itself to the islands. Although he was duly attentive, he did not seem very inquisitive. Indeed, he seemed reluctant to inform himself of the full extent of the problem. Perhaps, he thinks the whole scenario will fade away if it is simply ignored. ‘Are things not a lot calmer now?’ Seeing that Jardim has used the same strategy and violated election laws for over thirty years to continue to swindle elections it is less than likely that he will back down now that he is more desperate than ever to cling on to absolute power.
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