PORTUGAL-MANIA

Have you heard someone deriding Portugal lately?  Probably not; for various reasons, this country seems to be everybody’s darling.


Last week I went to a dinner party and the guests did not stop raving about Lisboa, as Lisbon is known in Portuguese, and Portugal in general.  They had either returned from an enchanted stay in the city or could not wait to go back there to escape the rough and tumble of Carioca life.  I am also fond of Portugal, but I do not get emotional about the country.   As a fish eater, I like Lisbon, renowned for its fantastic seafood restaurants.  Lisbon is charming, human-sized but tiring to explore because it is not flat. 


I can understand my friends’ attachment to Portugal; a large number of Brazilians have Portuguese relatives or ancestors and never cut the umbilical cord with the former colonial power.  A visit to a terrinha, an affectionate Brazilian term to describe tiny Portugal, is a time-honored pilgrimage.  Interestingly, Portugal and Brazil play to each other the role of switchable promised lands.  When life gets tough in Brazil, many Brazilians migrate to Portugal; conversely when things are bad in terrinha, Portuguese flock to Brazil.  In 1974, Portugal’s dictatorship collapsed and its colonies broke free after years of bloody repression, consequently, thousands of Portuguese took refuge in Brazil.  In the 1980s, when Brazil was in the dumps, many Portuguese moved back to Portugal alongside droves of Brazilians.  From 2016 on, the migration trend reversed to Portugal’s advantage.


Unlike neighboring countries, Brazil did not have to fight for independence, so there is no bad blood between the locals and the Portuguese.  The country was practically handed over by the Portuguese king to his son.  In 1808, Dom João, the regent prince of Portugal, started the promised land trend by landing in Rio de Janeiro.  With British help he, his family and court had narrowly escaped Napoleon’s invasion of Lisbon.   De facto, Brazil ceased being a colony, and became part of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.  In 1821, when the now King João reluctantly returned to Portugal, he left behind his son Pedro as regent.  Pedro did not wait long before declaring himself Emperor of Brazil without a shot being fired (1825).  


Portuguese is also a tourist’s darling: 21.2 million of them visited the country in 2018.  According to my own estimates, Portugal, mainland and islands have the highest ratio of tourists to residents (10.2 m).  It is one of Europe’s highest value destination, more affordable than Spain, and more welcoming.  


Portugal is also reinventing itself as a fiscal paradise for the well-heeled.  Middle-class European retirees are lured by its retirement plans.  As long as they spend half the year in Portugal, they can enjoy their pension, dividends and income tax free for 10 years.  Last but not least, there is the golden visa for rich non-Europeans.  Wealthy Brazilians and Chinese have been snatching these residence permits with abandon.  Investors can get a golden visa for as little as € 250 000.  As a result, Portugal which ranks the 4^th most peaceful country in the world is becoming the favorite place for expats to settle.


All these perks for foreigners have provided Portugal with plenty of friends.  Bailed out by the European Union eight years ago, the Portuguese economy is now booming.  Portugal used to be Western Europe’s backwater. I wonder how the locals who fed on staples like salt cod (bacalhau) and grilled sardines like this metamorphosis and cope with their new-found fame.  Salt cod has also evolved from a pauper’s dish to an expensive delicacy.


Finally, there is the tale of the two Carlos, both titans of the auto industry: Ghosn the Brazilian and Tavares the Portuguese.  Big spender, and megalomaniac Ghosn is now stuck in a Japanese jail for allegedly diverting company money for private use.  Ambitious too, though frugal, Tavares will soon sit on top of the fourth car company in the world!

In Brazil, the only thing Portuguese people criticize is pedras portuguesas! It is a sidewalk pavement made of small cobble stones arranged like a mosaic.  They are a legacy of Portugal’s colonialist past.  Rio’s pedras portuguesas are unfortunately in a state of disrepair, and people frequently stumble and trip on them.  In reality, the Portuguese stone pavement is not criticized for being Portuguese, but rather for being poorly laid out by unskilled Brazilian stone layers, and badly maintained by incompetent city bureaucrats. 

                                                        Pedras portuguesas Carioca style!