It has been more than three years now since I've returned to Portugal from Scandinavia. Less than one year after my return, the so-called Troika (the European Commission, the International Monetary Bank, and the European Central Bank), a non-elected entity, 'moved' to Portugal too.

If things were already looking weird to me after having lived five and a half years in Denmark, some events now appall me: a former member of the current government (Miguel Relvas) got ninety percent of his academic degree by credit transfer for his professional qualifications, and a banker (Fernando Ulrich) appeared on TV saying that there was always a possibility of him becoming homeless one day–just to give a couple of examples.

Portugal had the longest dictatorship in Europe during the last century and the country has only been democratic for the last four decades. She is celebrating her fortieth anniversary as a democracy this year. Today, there is an obvious inverted class war on the subaltern, the working-class, peasants, and even small businesses, and despite massive demonstrations and many strikes not seen for decades, many Portuguese have been forced to migrate.