Aitor Hernández-Morales
@aitorehm
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Senior reporter @PoliticoEurope covering cities and Iberian affairs. Formerly in Miami, Madrid, Lisbon, Rome; now in Brussels (but often found elsewhere). 🔁≠👍
Brussels, Belgium
Joined February 2015
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Today is the 25th of April, anniversary of Portugal's Carnation Revolution.
Given our global context, it's a good moment to remember what it was like to live under four decades of authoritarian rule and to celebrate the people who fought to restore democracy 48 years ago... 🧵
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Spectacular illustration by
@andreu_zaragoza
for 'The Barcelonian' perfectly summing up the devastating impact of uncontrolled tourist flats in European cities.
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Yesterday I woke up in Córdoba, Spain. Besides being one of Andalucía’s most beautiful municipalities, it’s also the European city with the highest average Summer temperatures (the thermometer marked 38ºC / 100ºF while I was there). Some quick takes on its urban design:
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Back in 2018, when I was working as a foreign correspondent in Lisbon, I got a call from my editor back in Madrid asking me to put together a story about one particular example of Portuguese exceptionalism: the abscence of the far-right within its political landscape.
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For a case-study example of how the media helps normalize the far-right, here's the leader of Portugal's ultranationalist, xenophobic, anti-Roma Chega party — which could be a kingmaker in the upcoming national elections — cheerfully biking onto a glossy morning show today.
Cheguei esta manhã de bicicleta à Casa Feliz, na SIC. Dia 10 de Março vamos pedalar para mudar Portugal.
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At this moment 266 years ago the ground began to shake in the Portuguese capital, marking the start of the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, a catastrophe which costs thousands of lives, revolutionized European philosophy and kicked off a new era of enlightened urban planning.
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These renderings of the center of Madrid and Rome's Porta San Paolo area with far fewer cars are absolutely stunning.
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El nuevo Nobel de Física, Michael Mayor, se ha enterado que ha ganado el premio estando en San Sebastián y alguien le ha sacado esta foto en el Aeropuerto, viendo los mensajes de enhorabuena que le llegaban. La foto me ha recordado a la experiencia de José Saramago en 1998...
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The weather today in Brussels isn’t just awful. It’s overtly aggressive. It hates you and your children and your children’s children, and it wants you to know it.
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Portugal's Defence Minister is vindicating his country's ownership of the town of Olivença — occupied by Spain since 1801 — and I'm HERE FOR IT because Lisbon is totally right on this one: For 209 years Madrid has refused to comply with what was agreed at the Congress of Vienna.
Ministro da Defesa diz que Olivença "é portuguesa" e país "não abdica" deste direito
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One of the things I most enjoy about Portugal is the obsession with formal titles. In this vintage clip two MPs exchange brutal insults — “clown!” “shameless opportunist!” — but preface them with “o senhor deputado” and “a senhora doutora.” Be rude, but don’t ever break protocol.
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Today is the 25th of April, 49th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution🌹
Salazar's regime may be long gone, but it very much shaped the way the country looks today.
Here's a thread on how the Estado Novo used urbanism and architecture to impose its vision of Portugal.
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People saying that this film should have been called "Shark de Triomphe" need to accept that the better title is clearly "Jaw'ccuse...!"
When a giant shark emerges in the Seine, a marine scientist and young activist must work together to prevent a bloodbath.
Under Paris, directed by Xavier Gens, premieres June 5th.
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Right, now that is Spain is settled, let's do Portugal.
For the next while I'll be coming to you live from Lisbon's Avenida da República as the country marks the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, the military uprising that ended the authoritarian Estado Novo regime.
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It’s unbelievable that this out of touch drivel is still being peddled by lifestyle / travel publications. Lisbon has been suffering from a dramatic housing / gentrification crisis for years; your “cheap” digital nomad experience comes as the expense of displaced locals.
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In the 1970s Madrid sacrificed its main waterway, the Manzanares, to build a ring road.
But 20 years ago the city unexpectedly decided to bury that highway and restore the ecosystem it had lost.
In this year's final thread: How Madrid got its river back.
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In adapting to climate change we have the opportunity to recover a lot of our urban development heritage and reincorporate the common sense solutions that were discarded when we switched to planning monumental cities around cars instead of people.
Good morning.
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Pensé que La Vanguardia nos estaba troleando adrede, pero ahora creo que apenas se trata de un error de traducción muy loco. En inglés se usa "Roman bath" para referirse a un hidromasaje. Quien fusiló este texto pensó que se estaba hablando de una terma romana real. En Wisconsin.
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On the Puigdemont saga: This may not seem clear to a lot of folks who are unfamiliar with Spanish politics, but the biggest winner in everything that happened in the last 24 hours may be ... Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Quick explanation...
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Una de las cosas que diferencia la transición 🇵🇹 de la 🇪🇸 fue lo rápidamente que los lusos eliminaron los vestigios visuales obvios de la dictadura. En Lisboa el Puente Salazar fue rebautizado en cinco meses; en Oviedo perviven las calles franquistas.
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Venga, con motivo del 46º aniversario de la Revolución de los Claveles, y con la mañana más o menos libre por primera vez en un largo rato, aquí va un
#lusohilo
reducido sobre el fin de la dictadura salazarista y el golpe militar que devolvió la democracia a Portugal.
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Huge numbers are congregating in central Madrid to protest against suspended Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales and his association, and to show support for forward Jenni Hermoso, the World Cup-winning athlete who was forcibly kissed by the FA chief.
#SeAcabo
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Portugal is famous for its mild climate and sunny beaches, but each year hundreds of people freeze to death and millions struggle to survive frigid winter weather.
Here's a quick thread based on my
@POLITICOEurope
story on Portuguese energy poverty 👇
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Con el debido respeto, me parece LOQUÍSIMO el report que ha emitido
@El_Intermedio
sobre la educación en Portugal porque está bastante lleno de falsedades y medias verdades.
Vamos por partes (abro hilo):
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This photo of Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez meeting with his Swedish counterpart, Stefan Löfven, looks less like a pre-EU summit chat and more like a scene out of a Steig Larsson thriller in which one of them confessing to a heinous crime committed decades ago on some remote fjord...
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Already seeing questionable tweets about Sunak being the first European leader of "non-white" or immigrant descent.
António Costa (whose father was born in Mozambique to a Goan family) has been PM of Portugal since 2015; former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's father was born in India.
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Autumn in Portugal / Autumn in Belgium
(Fotos taken exactly one week apart.)
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Desde la explosión de Beirut no dejo de pensar en la del barco de vapor Cabo Machichaco, cuya detonación arrasó con gran parte de Santander el 3 de noviembre de 1893, provocando la muerte de al menos 590 personas y dejando hasta 2000 heridos.
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If this is proven to be true, it'll be insane: The Portuguese Prosecutor's case against PM Costa is based on a recording in which a suspect his name. Prosecutors now apparently admit the suspect may have been talking about Economy Minister *António Costa Silva*, not the PM... 🤯
Ministério Público terá trocado nome de António Costa com ministro da Economia
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So on this 25th of April, say it loud, say it proud:
25 de abril sempre!
Fascimo nunca mais!
Boa tarde.
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Also, hate to be that guy but Lisbon's Castelo de São Jorge is less an actual historic monument and more a monument to the Salazar regime's obsession with recreating Portugal's glorious past: its current appearance only dates back to a 1940's Viollet-le-Duc-style reconstruction.
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Everyone was caught off guard by Portuguese PM António Costa's surprise resignation yesterday. Now that we've all had a second to catch our breath, here's a quick run-through through what happened — and what comes next — courtesy of
@POLITICOEurope
. 🧵
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Brussels is notorious for being one of Europe's most car-choked cities, but starting next week the streets of its central core are going to become a lot less auto-heavy and a lot more livable.
@POLITICOEurope
digs into the big changes that lie ahead.
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The most obvious is urban planning based on narrow streets, something pretty standard in almost all Andalusian towns. The tight corridors means that you have a degree of shade at nearly all times of day, making baking-hot summer days much more tolerable.
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In addition to copying the Bannon / Trump playbook in terms of diatribe, Ventura also similarly benefitted by media complicity in his rise. Portuguese TV personalities were totally fine with brining him onto their shows (and whitewashing him) in order to boost their ratings.
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The late European Parliament President David Sassoli's funeral is taking place this morning at Rome's Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri. Some quick notes on the incredible building in which the Italian Republic traditionally stages its state funerals.
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Bien: Costa acaba de ser nombrado primer ministro de Portugal. Han pasado poco más de 48 horas desde el cierre de los colegios electorales. Aprovecho el momento para destacar lo que algunos llamarán sentido de Estado, y otros considerarán pragmatismo, de los políticos lusos.
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It's car-free Sunday in Brussels, that magical 24 hour period that allows us — just once a year — to experience the much lovelier city we could / should have.
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Wrapping up: a lot of the urban cooling features that have been standard in Córdoba and Andalucía for centuries — the narrower streets, whitewashed homes, tree-lined thoroughfares — are increasingly being celebrated as wise city planning practices in the age of global warming.
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THIS 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
People used to get mad at me when I described the Costa government as “austerity with a smile.” Scant public investment + the willingness to back a service economy model based on volatile tourism / low salaries = little opportunity and an ongoing demographic crisis.
72% of young people in Portugal get paid a salary of less than 950 euros/month and 30% say they will leave the country in search of better opportunities...yet another example of why the Portuguese 'economic miracle' wasn't much of a miracle after all.
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Many of the old quarter’s homes have courtyards, an arquitectural feature inherited from both the Romans and the Moors.
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🚨BREAKING: MEPs approve Nature Restoration Law!
Huge defeat for Manfred Webber / EPP; big win for the VDL Commission and the EU's Green Deal.
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No nieva en Bruselas, pero vale la pena señalar que hoy aquí también tenemos fenómeno meteorológico: ha salido el sol!
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Gloriously sassy: Portugal's President Rebelo de Sousa recently described ex PM Costa as being "slow and oriental" in his ways (WTF). Costa slyly responds that he took the comment as a compliment — and as self-criticism by a President who often moves quickly and without thinking.
Estava a ver que nunca mais lhe perguntavam sobre o comentário de Marcelo🤭! Costa, pega que é tua:👑
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A lot of soul-searching needs to happen in Portugal if the country wants to reverse the far-right's expansion.
Citizens who abstained yesterday, but are outraged this morning, need to make sure to vote next time around.
The media needs to take a hard look at its role.
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Nowadays huge awnings are hung over streets within and outside the old quarter to provide cover during the Summer months. The feature is standard through Spain, but I expect we’ll see it north of the Pyrenees more and more as Europe keeps growing warmer.
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Wider avenues are tree lined, again providing for shade that makes it possible for residents to move around with some degree of protection from the harsh Summer sun, while also keeping homes from heating up too brutally.
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The plant-laden patios — designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2012 — are gorgeous but, again, there’s also the practical element here: they provide a refuge from the sun and are a cool point of reference within the traditional home.
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Córdoba started off as a Roman settlement, but the old part of the city that we know today — a UNESCO world heritage site — was shaped by the period of Moorish domination (929-1236), with a lot of common sense solutions incorporated for dealing with the heat.
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Absolutely insane: During the night Spain's Football Federation
@rfef
has released an insane press statement in which accuses Jenni Hermoso of lying and suggests *she* accosted him. It further states that legal action will be taken against those who criticize Luis Rubiales.
A defiant Luis Rubiales begins what's expected to be his resignation speech saying that more people support him than those that are against him. He follows by saying that he grabbed his groin — while standing beside the Queen of Spain — to cheer on football coach Jorge Vilda.
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And if hard-won democracy is to be preserved, conventional political parties need to revise their strategies and respond to the real needs of the Portuguese people. Without that it will always be easy for someone to come in with scapegoats and easy solutions to seduce voters.
🇵🇹
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Fascinated by this British tradition of having people gather to see how many heavy things a 74-year old man can carry.
"Make him hold a sword! Now put a heavy cape on him! Ooh, is that a big gold ball! Make him hold it! And the sticks, give him sticks! Yeah, now the metal hat!"
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During the period of Moorish dominance Córdoba there were elaborate fountains and irrigation systems spread through the city (here’s an example from the Cathedral-Mosque’s Courtyard of the Orange Trees). That obviously helped make things feel cooler.
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Firefighters attempting to put out the flames in Spain’s Castilla y León region found and rescued this dehydrated stag. Poignant reminder that humans aren’t the only ones suffering as Europe copes with ever-deadlier droughts, heatwaves and forest fires.
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Bueno, y ahora,
#SomePersonalNews
:
Tras cinco años ejerciendo de corresponsal en Portugal de
@elmundoes
,
@La_SER
y otros muchos medios, hoy pongo fin a mis andaduras por tierras lusas.
Próximamente comenzaré una nueva aventura en otro país, sobre la cual os contaré en breve.
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Weirdest thing you'll see today is the Mayor of Porto Rui Moreira of the Republic of Portugal presenting the pickled heart of King Pedro IV of Portugal / Emperor Pedro I of Brazil to President of the Federative Republic of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro.
Com honrarias de chefe de Estado, coração de Dom Pedro I chega ao Palácio do Planalto.
Peça foi recebida pelo presidente
@jairbolsonaro
. Cerimônia teve apresentação da Esquadrilha da Fumaça.
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You get this in the plazas in the old town — which are also fairly narrow, ensuring some degree of shade. And the whitewash not only looks nice, but has a practical function: it keeps the outer walls cool.
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The Great Mosque was itself a model of smart design given the period when it was built and the massive numbers of people it accommodated (I think I read that 40,000 faithful could gather there for Friday prayers). The double arches allowed for high ceilings; a vast, dark space.
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Con 19 ministros y 50 secretarios de Estado, el IIº Ejecutivo Costa destaca por ser el mayor de la historia democrática de Portugal. Tal y como se ha hecho desde 1978, esta mañana los miembros del nuevo Gobierno tomarán posesión de sus cargos en el palacio "maldito" de Lisboa...
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Given it's an overcast Easter Monday in Brussels and there's absolutely nothing to do, here's a tale of attempted regicide, bloodthirsty retribution and almost psychotic pettiness from Lisbon to brighten a day that's our calendar's equivalent of the doldrums.
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Based on this letter, I think we can all agree that the EU has lost its chance to have an exceptional ✨ Commissioner for Drama ✨ in the next College.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my colleagues in the College, Commission services, MEPs, Member States, and my team.
Together, we have worked tirelessly to advance an ambitious EU agenda.
It has been an honour & privilege to serve the common European interest🇪🇺
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Lisbon has all sorts of functional inconveniences and during the five years I lived here there were no shortage of times that I felt deeply frustrated by the city, but the sheer beauty of this place still takes my breath away; sem dúvida alguma é a capital mais linda de Europa.
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When you report on EU affairs you accept that what’s newsy in Brussels is usually ignored by the citizenry in member countries, but this week’s political hypocrisy story seems to have appeal well beyond the Bubble. Here’s new József Szájer / Fidesz graffiti spotted in Rome:
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Disturbing sight: Municipal workers in Madrid remove the street plaque bearing the name of progressive schoolteacher Justa Freire (1896-1965) and replace it with one commemorating General José Millán-Astray (1879-1854), a prominent figure in the Franco dictatorship. 📸
@matallanas
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They also built substantially larger squares than those built during the Moorish period, like the XVII century Plaza de la Corredera, which looks lovely but is essentially a giant frying pan from 9 a.m to 9 p.m during the Summer (keep to the arcades).
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#Spain
Update: It's all over for Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Tonight the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) told the leader of the center-right Popular Party that it will not even sit down to discuss his hypothetical candidacy to be Spain's next prime minister, which is now impossible.
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This is the Spanish, nobody-tells-me-what-to-do attitude that I love. Three homophobes forced a rural town hall to take down its rainbow flag by alleging that it violated the rules on flying non-official flags. The villagers have responded by hanging 400+ flags everywhere else.
En Villanueva de Algaidas, un pueblo de Málaga de 4000 habitantes, el ayuntamiento se ha visto obligado a retirar una bandera LGTBI del balcón por la denuncia de 3 vecinos. ¿La respuesta del pueblo? Colocar más de 400 banderas por el municipio.
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They need to clear space in the hall of the
@USNatArchives
where they display the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and leave some room for
@DollyParton
to hang out: while most celebrities were doing TikToks, this NATIONAL TREASURE funded COVID-19 vaccine development.
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Those advantages were somewhat diminished when the Catholics took Córdoba and turned the mosque into a cathedral; in their drive to let in God’s light, they also let in quite a bit of heat.
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It is heartbreaking to see Portuguese authorities continue to bet on models that contribute to the destruction of local identity in the country’s major cities, and to the growth of a “cheap” service sector economy that is based on the exploitation of the local population.
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Spanish President
@sanchezcastejon
has sent a remarkable letter to an 11 year-old who was hospitalized as a result of a homophobic attack in Cartagena. "You are not alone," he tells the boy. "The Spanish Government... and the overwhelming majority of our society is with you."
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They ok with this even as Ventura was openly declaring that:
— Roma people should be put in camps
— Portugal needed a new dictatorship
— If elected, a specific gender-bending celebrity would no longer be welcome in Portugal
— The elections might be rigged
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Somehow, the country nestled in Europe's southwestern corner seemed to be bucking the trend. Forty years after the triumph of the Carnation Revolution, its people appeared to remain true to the values that had put an end to Salazarism and recovered democratic ideals.
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I know we’re all watching the football, but the images circulating right now of the mass protests breaking out in major Cuban cities against the Castro / Díaz Canel regime are pretty remarkable. I don’t remember seeing anything like this before.
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Portuguese public television is airing their version of The Price is Right and discussing the featured prize, a trip to a safari park near Lisbon. Coming up next (?), a presidential address potentially announcing the dissolution of parliament. Gloriosamente surreal.
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Today isn't just Europe Day: it's also the 635 anniversary of the Treaty of Windsor of 1386, which established the alliance between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Portugal. The Anglo-Portuguese alliance remains the world's oldest diplomatic pact that is still in force.
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Some said this exceptionalism was due to the country's constitution, which includes an article which prohibits "armed associations, military, militarized or paramilitary-type associations and organizations that are
racist or display a fascist ideology."
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Fascinating: Spaniards are increasingly agnostic, but paradoxically the number of Holy Week processions continues to grow.
Basic explanation: in an ever more isolated society people {even non-believers} love being part of collectives like brotherhoods.
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Addenda to this thread:
As
@sofiadmateus
points out, Ventura very much used the Bannon / Trump playbook of using insults and talking over people in debates to get ahead. It didn't matter what he said, the key was just to appear to never be retreating.
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Forget stockpiling Birkin bags, taking a bath in a tub of Dom Pérignon or buying a penthouse in Monte Carlo; the easiest way to demonstrate decadent wealth this week is to run a dishwasher or do a load of laundry during peak hours in Southern Europe.
C. Tangana vuelve a levantar polémica posando en un yate con trescientos recibos de la luz:
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Yet another heatwave is hitting Europe this week, and as temperatures soar we're likely to see the number of excess deaths registered this Summer continue to climb.
Here's a quick explainer on why so many of those heat-related deaths will be registered in the bloc's cities.
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✨PERSONAL NEWS✨
If you enjoy my threads on urban planning / the history of cities, here’s a happy development: come March I’ll be shifting off
@POLITICOEurope
’s Energy and Climate desk to lead a new project exploring the endless wonder of Europe’s metropolitan landscapes.
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COVID means Portugal will have a hard time hosting in-person events during its turn in the rotating presidency of the Council. Why is Lisbon still spending hundreds of thousands of euros on event spaces, wine and clothing?
@liliebayer
& I looked into it.
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🇪🇸 SIGNS OF THE TIMES 🇵🇹
Right, now that is Spain is settled, let's do Portugal.
For the next while I'll be coming to you live from Lisbon's Avenida da República as the country marks the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, the military uprising that ended the authoritarian Estado Novo regime.
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Portugal has a strange situation going on with its cannabis legislation. Foreign companies like Canada's Tilray have the greenlight to grow it, but domestic producers are still prosecuted. Shouldn't Portuguese farmers get a shot?
Apreendemos 23 000 pés de cannabis, no concelho de Almeirim, o que corresponderá à maior apreensão alguma vez feita em Portugal e a uma das maiores na Europa
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Dresden, or a summary of post-war urban development in many / most bombed-out European cities.
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This kind of urban landscape should just be the norm in every European city; chapeau, Nîmes.
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A friend from Porto sends me this picture of a newly opened, topically-named bakery called PÃODEMIA (play on words combining "pão" — the Portuguese word for bread — with "pandemia" — pandemic).
I, for one, yearn for a global crisis centered on pastéis de nata and bolos.
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They pointed out that the Portuguese political class hadn't managed to address citizen's most pressing concerns — low wages, lack of industry and problematic long-term prospects for the youth — and said that the situation left an opening for a charismatic rival on the far-right.
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Although Ventura was a clownish figure, the academics warned that he was seizing on racist attitudes that were embedded in parts of Portuguese society and pointed out that there were parts of the country where frog figurines were still displayed in shops to "ward off gypsies."
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Esta historia me tiene loco: desde hace nueve años un señor belga recibe pizzas que no ha pedido. Están pagadas, pero llegan a horas aleatorias, y ahora vive aterrorizado, siempre esperando la aparición de entregas...
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