For so many reasons, Brazil has followed the tormented European elections more closely than in the past with its eyes set on a possible victory for the far right. The first reason was the political situation in this country where, despite the victory of the progressive Lula da Silva, the right, that of the coup leader Jair Bolsonaro, continues to struggle to stay alive.
The political analyst Merval Pereira immediately came out to reassure the progressive forces. According to him, the results “do not mean that the European Union is on the verge of being dominated by right-wingers or that the world is moving inexorably in that direction.” He does not deny, however, that the result “could have consequences in Brazil, which since 2018 has been the scene of a dispute between left and right, representing a political setback with serious consequences.”
The echo that today resonates again in Brazil, in the sense that during the dictatorship people lived better and with greater security, has made me remember – and will have done so in those like me who lived through the serious Civil War and the 40 years of obscurantism Francoist—that what resonates is the gloomy litany that “with Franco people lived better.” It is repeated by those who did not suffer the violence and horrors of that dictatorship that seems to want to resurrect.
No, with Franco things were always worse because the bells of fear and obedience to the regime rang at the cost of one’s own life. On a sheet of paper that they gave to the generalissimo along with the cup of coffee after lunch, there were the names of those who were to be killed and Franco entertained himself by drawing a flower next to each of those condemned to death. Terrible irony!
It was violence with macabre overtones of revenge. I remember that a friend of mine, a lawyer from Madrid, told me with horror that they had telephoned him in case he wanted to participate that morning in the torture of his former friend and then they had distanced themselves. They gave him to understand that he had the opportunity to take revenge by personally participating in the ritual of torture of his former friend.
Perhaps because of those memories and others that I prefer not to relive, I feel a chill when I hear today that life was better with Franco. And it is not about discussing whether a democratic right is better for democracy itself than a corrupt left. What there is no doubt is that freedom, of expression and thought, will always be better than dictatorship of any color.
Sometimes here in Brazil, young journalists who know my long journalistic journey ask me what life was like in Spain during the times of the leader, blessed even by the Vatican with the privileges granted to that regime of terror that presented itself as the champion of Catholicism.
Today I am going to tell you an anecdote that I experienced in Madrid, when in 1966 the Franco regime called a referendum on the regime to commemorate the 25 years of the Civil War. The plebiscite naturally obtained 95.90% support for the leader. It was then when I experienced a moment of concern with the Francoist police. I came from Italy. That year, the bullfighter El Viti had won the annual award and I was invited to present the award to him at the traditional dinner for said event in Madrid. They asked me to say two words when awarding him the trophy. With prudence it was understood. Throughout the city, the giant “25 years of peace” posters drew attention.
I told those present at that dinner who were packed into the hotel that when I turned around I had found a city covered in posters that read: “25 years of peace,” but that the important thing is that it had been “25 years of peace and not of order”. When I left dinner, two police officers were waiting for me at the door. They wanted me to explain better what I meant. I tried to explain to them the difference between order and peace, that order is imposed with force and peace is achieved with freedom. They looked at me like I was a Martian. One of the police officers told me to be clearer: “I meant that while peace is achieved with freedom, order is imposed with force.” They shouldn’t have understood. They asked me what I was doing in Rome. I told them I studied philosophy. The two policemen looked at each other and let me go.
Today, the difference between peace and order remain alive as two categories that define existence and partly explain the political turbulence in the world between left and right, which struggle to compete. It is true, perhaps, that in Franco’s time people went out into the streets without fear until dawn. Order was assured. The punishment for anyone who tried to break it was paid in the form of torture and summary shootings.
It is true that today the resurgence of the extreme right is due in part to the fact that democracy has fallen asleep a little and has relegated to the background the problem of violence that plagues the world and of which that extreme right, that of its passion for weapons and that gives rise to new temptations to impose order at the cost of sacrificing peace.
Despite all the political turbulence that dangerously shakes the world as a whole, just as when I was still young, I still believe that peace can only be built with dialogue and collaboration between people and not with fear of the demons of fear. and violence.
No! With Franco people lived worse, with greater violence, with more hunger and without horizons of hope of being able to taste the ripe fruits of freedom.
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