Há duas olimpíadas, Portugal não estava a ganhar muitas medalhas e o pessoal, zangado, descarregou num dos nossos melhores atletas por ele ter dito… a verdade: que de manhã as suas pernas não funcionavam bem e que a experiência dos Jogos Olímpicos era fantástica mesmo só pela participação. Não sei se se lembram, mas a indignação foi tanta que o puseram de volta para casa com um bilhete comprado expressamente para o efeito. Essa foi a crónica que então escrevi, e uma das minhas de que mais gosto. Para mim, Marco Fortes é até hoje o símbolo do espírito olímpico injustiçado. *** Oh meu Zeus, meu Zeus, vejam como estou indignado. Estou indignado, indignadíssimo!, com Marco Fortes, atleta português do lançamento do peso. Ao comentar o seu fraco desempenho nos Jogos Olímpicos, Marco Fortes reconheceu que o seu corpo não responde tão bem de manhã: “De manhã é para estar na caminha – eu queria esticar as pernas mas elas só queriam estar na caminha.” Que é isto?! Em toda a minha vida, só ouvi um português dizer que “de manhã não funciono”: Sousa Franco. E foi preciso ter sido ministro das Finanças duas vezes, presidente do Tribunal de Contas – um homem sério, portanto -, para poder afrontar esse tabu. Mas Marco Fortes fez pior:

A minha crónica de ontem no Público é sobre o que tem feito a UE e não sai nos jornais portugueses. “Esta realidade, porém, esconde uma outra em que os cidadãos têm mais poder do que imaginam. Não há muitas regiões do globo em que um cidadão individual possa levar uma companhia como a Facebook ao Tribunal de Justiça da UE (depois de uma longa via sacra pelos tribunais nacionais, como aconteceu com o jovem austríaco Max Schrems) e ganhar o caso. Pela primeira vez, também, grupos de cidadãos em França e na Alemanha tentam levar a Volkswagen ao mesmo tribunal, no que seria na prática um primeiro exemplo de “ação coletiva” europeia. O acesso à justiça europeia e a democratização das instituições da UE são as reformas de que precisamos para recuperar o poder que perdemos e até ganhar aquele que nunca tivemos: o de vergar as multinacionais através da cidadania europeia. Difícil, mas possível.” Leia a crónica completa em A esperança da audácia  

1 – Mais duas universidades nacionais na lista das melhores do mundo (Samuel Silva) A Universidade de Lisboa tem sido a melhor portuguesa neste ranking desde há dois anos quando, pela primeira vez, foi apreciada como uma única instituição – após o processo de fusão com a Técnica de Lisboa. Desta feita, aparece entre o 151º e o 200º lugar, melhorando em relação ao ano passado, em que aparecia no intervalo 201º-300º. A lista de Xangai só discrimina as posições das instituições até ao centésimo lugar. A partir daí, as instituições aparecem colocadas em grandes intervalos. https://www.publico.pt/…/mais-duas-universidades-nacionais-… 2 – From Burmese Dissident to Mystifying Politician (Shirin Ebadi) I’m sure it is a responsibility that my fellow Nobel peace laureate—a woman who was under house arrest off and on for more than two decades—takes very seriously. Yet those of us who spoke up for Aung San Suu Kyi those many years when her human rights were being violated—including His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu—are deeply pained that she won’t extend the same respect for human rights to Burma’s more than one million Rohingya. http://www.wsj.com/…/from-burmese-dissident-to-mystifying-p… 3 – In 2002, Donald Trump Said He Supported Invading Iraq (Andrew Kaczynski) “We still don’t know what Iraq is up to or whether it has the material to build nuclear weapons. I’m no warmonger,” Trump wrote. “But the fact is, if we decide a strike against Iraq is necessary, it is madness not to carry the mission to its conclusion. When we don’t, we have the worst of all worlds: Iraq remains a threat, and now has more incentive than ever to attack us.” https://www.buzzfeed.com/…/in-2002-donald-trump-said-he-sup… 4 – Trump adviser Al Baldasaro: Hillary Clinton should be shot for treason, not assassinated ( Shira Schoenberg ) Baldasaro said his comments were in accordance with U.S. law establishing the death penalty for treason. He suggested that Clinton’s use of a private email server could be considered treasonous.”That’s aiding and abetting the enemy by those emails on letting (out) names of Secret Service special agents, our veterans, on those emails,” Baldasaro said. http://www.masslive.com/…/trump_adviser_al_baldasaro_hil.ht… 5 – Alleged sighting of Farage at German embassy sparks citizenship speculation (Jon Henley) Witte also said she overheard Farage, a prominent campaigner in Britain’s referendum vote to leave the European Union, apologising to an official for not having a particular document with him, saying: “As you might have noticed I’ve been a bit busy lately”. http://www.theguardian.com/…/facebook-post-of-farage-sighti… 6 – How Safe Are We? (John Mueller, Mark Stewart) Are we safer?” might be the most common question asked about terrorism, but it is the wrong one. A better place to begin is with this question: “How safe are we?” https://www.foreignaffairs.com/…/united-states/2016-08-15/h…  

1 – Still in the grip of the Great War (economist.com) “For the first time, but not the last, the organisation and technology of sophisticated industrial societies were seamlessly and lethally joined. The war destroyed empires (some quickly, some more slowly), created fractious new nation-states, gave a sense of identity to the British dominions, forced America to become a world power and led directly to Soviet communism, the rise of Hitler, the second world war and the Holocaust. The turmoil in the Middle East has its roots in the world it spawned. As Fritz Stern, a German-American historian, put it, the conflict was “the first calamity of the 20th century, the calamity from which all other calamities sprang”.” http://www.economist.com/…/21599798-first-world-war-was-def…? fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/stillinthegripofthegreatwar 2 – Questions all Jeremy Corbyn supporters need to answer (Owen Jones) “In the weeks before Corbyn’s victory, I wrote a long detailed suggested strategy for his leadership to follow. Was it all right? No, I am just one flawed human being with my own flawed ideas. I do think it was essentially the right strategy (well duhh, that’s why I wrote it). When it became clear such a strategy was not going to be put into practice, I fell into despondency. The most important advice I could give was that first impressions were critical: most people are not losers like me who take a daily interest in politics. They might look up at their TV sets, see who this new leader of the Labour party is, and if they don’t like what they see: well, a bad first impression is very difficult to shift. If you do not define yourself, you will be defined by your opponents.” https://medium.com/…/questions-all-jeremy-corbyn-supporters… 3 – Why Khizr Khan Is Paul Ryan’s Worst Nightmare (Conor Friedersdorf) “But few expected that his initial comments would be an attack on Khizr Khan’s wife, who stood beside her husband for emotional support but did not herself deliver a speech. “If you look at his wife,” Trump said on ABC, as if it had anything to do with the matter at hand, “she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably—maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.” http://www.theatlantic.com/…/why-khizr-khan-is-pau…/493796/…

A minha crónica de hoje chama-se “Se não quer irritar-se, não leia” (e não digam que não foram avisados). As crónicas agora farão uma pausa para férias e voltarão daqui 15 dias. “Aquilo por que ninguém esperava era política. Se a UE é irreformável, não há política. Se a Alemanha ganha sempre, não há política. Se há uma “Bruxelas” homogénea à espera de nos lixar, não há política. Se já estamos derrotados à partida, não vale a pena lutar. Mais vale abandonar o jogo. Qual? Um de dois: o jogo da governação à esquerda, ou o jogo do projeto europeu. Diz a narrativa. Mas felizmente há política. E quando há política, às vezes ganhamos e às vezes perdemos, como os alemães e os outros. Talvez a explicação mais simples seja a verdadeira: Bruxelas não é homogénea e nós não somos vítimas. Às vezes até somos culpados da maneira como Bruxelas é.”

A minha crónica de hoje no Público – As três conquistas de Bernie “Pura e simplesmente, Bernie Sanders — que há um ano nem era militante partidário — conseguiu puxar o Partido Democrático mais para a esquerda do que qualquer outro político em muitas décadas. É agora possível, com o eleitorado e os ativistas que ele trouxe para a política, eleger muitos novos deputados e senadores progressistas para o Congresso americano. Essa conquista de Bernie traz com ela muitas outras conquistas: como ficou bem patente no discurso que ele fez na madrugada de ontem à Convenção Democrática, o programa eleitoral que ele negociou com Hillary Clinton contempla agora propostas que há poucos meses seriam consideradas impensáveis, das propinas gratuitas no ensino superior público à nomeação de juízes do Supremo que possam sentenciar a proibição de dinheiro privado nas campanhas eleitorais, ou à reforma das leis de imigração e da justiça criminal. Se implementadas, estas conquistas terão importância para lá das fronteiras dos EUA.”

1 – Hungarian prime minister says migrants are ‘poison’ and ‘not needed’. (theguardian.com) “Hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees trekked through Hungary and Austria in 2015 as they sought to reach wealthy European nations. But the flow slowed to a trickle after Orban’s government erected razor wire and fences along the southern borders last autumn and brought in tough anti-migrant laws. Orban said the migration and foreign policy plans of the US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump were “vital” for Hungary, whereas those of his rival, the Democrat Hillary Clinton, were “deadly”.” https://www.theguardian.com/…/hungarian-prime-minister-vikt… 2 – Juncker tells UK: No single market without freedom of movement (EurActiv.com) ““There will be no access to the internal market for those who do not accept the rules – without exception or nuance – that make up the very nature of the internal market system,” Juncker said. However, diplomats told the Guardian that plans to allow the United Kingdom an exemption from EU rules on freedom of movement for up to seven years while retaining access to the single market were being considered in European capitals as part of a potential deal on Brexit.” http://www.euractiv.com/…/juncker-tells-uk-no-single-mark…/… 3 – Europe risks repeating past mistakes on Islam (Jonathan Laurence) “This has recently come to a head. In 2014, the Austrian parliament voted to end Turkish funding for religious activities and evict Turkish religious personnel. The move echoed the Austro-Hungarian empire’s decision one hundred years earlier to replace the caliphate in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a Vienna-approved religious leader. Belgium recently passed a similar decree regarding the nomination of imams, and German politicians have for months called for an end to Turkey’s influence in European Islam. The EU recently funded a journalism project dedicated to exposing “Turkish puppets” who promote the religious ideology of Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and AKP within Europe.” http://www.brookings.edu/…/21-europe-islam-salafism-laurenc… 4 – Juncker puts veteran French politician in charge of Brexit talks (the guardian.com) “I am very glad that my friend Michel Barnier accepted this important and challenging task. I wanted an experienced politician for this difficult job,” Juncker said in a statement. “I am sure that he will live up to this new challenge and help us to develop a new partnership with the United Kingdom.” http://www.theguardian.com/…/jean-claude-juncker-puts-miche… 5 – EU to appoint new ambassador to Turkey (Florian Eder) “Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, will inform the College of Commissioners today that she will appoint Christian Berger as the new head of the EU’s delegation in Turkey, according to a briefing for the meeting that POLITICO has seen.” http://www.politico.eu/…/eu-to-appoint-new-ambassador-to-…/…  

Não adianta alegar que sempre houve mentira e desonestidade em política. A novidade não está na mentira, está no preço que deixou de se pagar quando ela é descoberta. Onde antes carreiras eram destruídas, basta agora um encolher de ombros e esperar que chegue outro assunto.  Fui recentemente a um debate em que um dos oradores disse logo na sua primeira frase uma mentira. Não uma mentira qualquer, mas uma que os presentes poderiam desmentir saindo à rua — estava em causa a falsificação de um slogan partidário que está em cartazes pelo país todo. Foi-lhe chamada a atenção, e o orador alegou que se tinha confundido. Errar é humano, e deu-se-lhe o benefício da dúvida. Entretanto já outro orador tinha engrenado numa série de argumentos que misturavam meias-verdades, falsidades e factos pura e simplesmente inventados, segundo os quais, por exemplo, teria havido uma votação unânime em Bruxelas na qual “até o Syriza” teria confirmado que as contas do Governo português “são irrealistas”. Parte do que foi dito “anda por aí” e a outra parte poderia ser justificada pela crença de que a vida é uma campanha eleitoral permanente e que as campanhas eleitorais têm regras maleáveis. Os outros presentes no debate não tinham muito como reagir.

1 – Contra as sanções, Portugal irá até ao Tribunal Europeu (geringonça.pt) “Depois de numa primeira fase ter sido avançado que vários comissários defenderam “sanções zero”, nos últimos dias têm sido veiculadas informações que apontam para sanções reduzidas mas não nulas. O próprio Expresso avança que poderia ser mesmo aplicada a multa ainda que não no montante máximo previsto: 0,2% do PIB, o equivalente a 370 milhões de euros. Já na tarde de ontem, a Lusa avançava que Bruxelas pondera suspender alguns dos fundos estruturais a Portugal.” http://geringonca.com/…/contra-sancoes-portugal-ira-ate-ao…/ 2 – Welcome To The Russian Game: It’s Embarrassing, It’s Dirty, And It Might Be Out Of Control (Miriam Elder) “Yes, Putin wants Trump in power — wouldn’t you? An anti-internationalist who questions the use of NATO and wants to withdraw from the WTO while pushing for “deals” without thinking about pesky things like “rights” and “freedom.”. But why this hack, and why now? Because there’s nothing Moscow plays better in than shame — degrading the worth of things by chipping away at them in ways that makes the world an uglier place.” https://www.buzzfeed.com/…/welcome-to-the-russian-game-its-… 3 – Brexit latest: The interim European Economic Area option (James Blitz) “Two questions arise from this. First, would EU governments view a time-limited transitional membership of the EEA favourably? Wolfgang Munchau, who discusses the ASI plan in his Eurointelligence blog, is confident they would. In his view, it would minimise the economic fallout from Brexit, something Europe would want to avoid “given the eurozone’s extreme vulnerability to even the smallest shocks”. The second question regards free movement. There is still no way the EU will allow Britain, as an EEA member, to introduce EU border controls. This is bound to be seen by some Leave campaigners as a betrayal of the spirit behind the June 23 vote. The only way for Mrs May to confront this problem would be to stress the transitional nature of the arrangement, insisting that migration curbs would become possible once Britain has left the EEA and entered a free-trade agreement with the EU.” https://next.ft.com/co…/931bffc8-5253-11e6-befd-2fc0c26b3c60 (Imagem: Fotografia de Ria Novosti / Reuters)

1 – Chomsky: Today’s GOP is a Candidate for Most Dangerous Organization in Human History—Part 2 (Amy Goodman) “Well, there’s a long history. The basic—we don’t have a lot of time, but the basic story is that the United States, like Britain before it, has tended to support radical Islamism against secular nationalism. That’s been a consistent theme of imperial strategy for a long time. Saudi Arabia is the center of radical Islamic extremism. Patrick Cockburn, one of the best commentators and most knowledgeable commentators, has correctly pointed out that what he calls the Wahhibisation of Sunni Islam, the spread of Saudi extremist Wahhabi doctrine over Sunni Islam, the Sunni world, is one of the real disasters of modern—of the modern era. It’s a source of not only funding for extremist radical Islam and the jihadi outgrowths of it, but also, doctrinally, mosques, clerics and so on, schools, you know, madrassas, where you study just Qur’an, is spreading all over the huge Sunni areas from Saudi influence. And it continues.” http://www.democracynow.org/…/chomsky_todays_gop_is_a_candi… 2- Antonio Guterres, the Man Who May Become the Next UN Secretary-General ( Devirupa Mitra) “I don’t want to talk about it,” he said, when approached at the end of his speech for a comment about his pole position among the candidates to succeed Ban Ki-Moon in 2017. Guterres has assiduously kept away from any public commentary, even among the media of his own country, despite being pursued relentlessly since the news leaked about the straw poll results. Diplomatic sources told The Wire that Guterrres was certainly happy with the result, but unlike other candidates, was determined not to be seen to comment on a result that was only the first roadblock to be cleared on a long and uncertain road.” ahead. http://thewire.in/53385/antonio-guterres/ 3 – Turkey: Erdogan moves to shutter 2,340 institutions (aljazeera.com) “Turkey has suspended 37,500 civil servants and police officers in the wake of the coup, including many from the education ministry, and also revoked the license of 21,000 teachers. The education ministry said it was looking to close more than 600 schools. The number of people detained has surpassed 10,000 while more than 4,000 of those have been arrested. More than 7,000 of those detained are soldiers, including at least 120 generals.” http://www.aljazeera.com/…/turkey-erdogan-moves-shutter-234… (Imagem: ilustração de Martha Williams)