Save Portugal? From What, Exactly?

They say we need to “save Portugal from 50 years of left-wing rule.” They chant it like a hymn, without blinking — as if the country had been held hostage by a tyrannical regime. Funny how this narrative always skips over the nearly half-century before that: a dictatorship, a colonial war, structural poverty, and international isolation. Yes, before the Carnation Revolution, Portugal was one of the most underdeveloped countries in the OECD. But that part? Inconvenient. Best forgotten, apparently.

Riding the wave of disinformation, some try to sell the idea that the post-revolution years were a national freefall. Yet facts — those stubborn things — tell a different story: illiteracy dropped from 26% to 3%, school completion rates skyrocketed, university enrolment multiplied eightfold, the National Health Service was created, life expectancy rose by 14 years, infant mortality plunged, and most Portuguese homes gained access to electricity, running water, and sanitation. The Human Development Index surged. Exports boomed. The trade deficit became a surplus. GDP increased more than tenfold. Was it perfect? Far from it. But a collapse? Only for those living in an alternate reality.

And yet, today’s firebrands shouting against “the left” seem blissfully unaware of what that left actually built — the very foundations of what they now take for granted: labour rights, minimum wage, paid holidays, access to education and healthcare, legal abortion, LGBTQ+ decriminalisation, environmental protections, and even animal rights. These weren’t divine gifts. They were hard-fought wins.

The inconvenient truth? Most of those self-proclaimed “saviours” have nothing concrete to offer. No serious economic plan. No blueprint for reforming the state, education, healthcare, or welfare. But they do excel at one thing: empty slogans, imaginary enemies, and a narrative soaked in fear and resentment. They feed off the frustration bred by the neoliberal order — job insecurity, low wages, housing crises, a stalled middle class. And then they peddle scapegoats: immigrants, the poor, “the others.”

It’s an old trick — set fire to the house, then show up with a leaky bucket. They manufacture moral panics, spread fake news, hijack social media algorithms, and stir the pot with wild conspiracy theories. Migrants who pay taxes are painted as threats. Minimal social welfare is framed as national ruin. All while putting on a theatrical display better suited for reality TV — because the goal isn’t to govern. It’s to entertain.

The far-right isn’t here to save Portugal. They’re here for the spotlight. They crave applause, not solutions. And what they’re selling is resentment, dressed up as patriotism and morality.

Save Portugal? Maybe. But it won’t be them doing the saving. Because anyone promising national salvation through hate, ignorance, and exclusion isn’t offering a future — just a louder version of the same old fear.