24 April, 2025 (original chronicle: https://www.publico.pt/2025/04/23/p3/cronica/abril-luto-cravos-so-brancos-benzidos-2130815)

Our famously secular State — always so steadfast in its constitutional convictions, right up until the first chance to kneel — has decided that April 25th, that tiny historical footnote in which we won our freedom, must now be celebrated with “restraint.” Because the Pope died.

Instead of a stage and microphone, perhaps we’ll get a quiet tent in muted tones, with a confessional in the corner for anyone daring to celebrate the fall of a dictatorship too enthusiastically. Freedom? Yes, but whisper it — we’re in mourning. Carnations? Only white ones, preferably blessed.

After all, freedom is a beautiful concept — and conveniently flexible — especially when it can be bent to diplomatic agendas and the pious sensibilities of a government that is secular… when it feels like it.

In this new April, we are asked for respect. But not for the people, the revolution, or the Constitution. No. Respect for imposed silence, for obedience to celestial hierarchy, as if the liberty of a nation should kneel before the death of a head of state who was never ours. Because yes — we are a free country, so long as we don’t bother anyone. A sovereign people, as long as we don’t celebrate it. Carnations on your chest? Only if they’re discreet. After all, we are in mourning… for freedom.