Inês wakes in the cramped apartment she shares with two other activists. The rent takes half her income—the housing crisis Seguro talks about but can't solve. "Talk" being the operative word for his presidency.
The morning coffee comes with group chat debates. Her climate collective is divided: work with PS structures that Seguro energizes, or maintain independence? The president has made environmental rhetoric standard—climate emergency, green transition, EU targets—but AD government implements slowly. Inês belongs to the faction that sees this as worse than honest obstruction. At least with Ventura, you know where you stand.
Her job at an environmental NGO brings contact with government officials. They're sympathetic, mostly. "The president supports this," they say about various proposals. Support that doesn't become policy is just performance. Inês has learned to distinguish allies who deliver from allies who posture. Seguro falls somewhere between—well-intentioned, perhaps, but structurally limited.
Lunch with BE activists who supported Catarina Martins in 2026. "We told you," one says. "Seguro is PS. PS disappoints. It's what they do." Inês voted for Seguro in the second round—against Ventura—but the critique lands. What did the anti-Chega coalition actually achieve? A nicer-sounding president while the same problems persist.
The afternoon brings a housing protest at Martim Moniz. Smaller than 2026's mobilizations; energy has dissipated. Seguro visited a housing project last month—photo opportunity, sympathetic words. The evictions continued the next day. This is the pattern: presidential attention that doesn't translate to protection.
Walking home, Inês passes construction sites—luxury apartments, tourist developments, the gentrification machine grinding forward. AD government protects investor interests; PS president speaks about affordability. The cognitive dissonance is exhausting. Either fight the machine or be complicit. Symbolic opposition from Belém isn't fighting.
Dinner with her collective brings planning for spring actions. Someone proposes coordinating with PS youth—Seguro's presidency has brought new energy there. Inês is skeptical. "Co-optation," she warns. "They'll absorb our demands and deliver nothing." But the alternative—isolation, purity, irrelevance—isn't appealing either.
The evening news shows Seguro meeting with European social democratic leaders. The footage looks good: progressive vocabulary, solidarity language, everything Inês believes in words. But words in Brussels while families are evicted in Lisbon—the gap is unbearable.
Before bed, Inês reads theory—Gramsci, Bookchin, contemporary ecosocialists. Looking for frameworks that explain why this keeps happening. Why center-left presidents talk left and govern center. Why hope becomes disappointment becomes cynicism becomes abstention. The cycle she's watched her whole adult life.
She'll keep fighting. Not for Seguro—despite him, if necessary. But the energy that built in 2026, the sense that things could change, has largely dissipated. Portugal got the less bad option. Less bad is still bad.