HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF?
“The misunderstanding of the present is fatally born of ignorance of the past. But perhaps it is no less vain to exhaust oneself in understanding the past if one knows nothing of the present.”
Marc Bloch, The Historian’s Craft, Jorge Zahar, Rio de Janeiro, 2001
On July 17, 2026, the fifth meeting of the Poesia da Mangiare cycle was held at Dante & C.ª, in Alvalade: Does History repeat itself? — a conversation with historian Maria Alice Samara and journalist, translator, and writer Marcello Sacco, moderated by Elísio Borges Maia. It was a beautiful conversation attended by about 30 people. We provide the audio recording on this page for those who could not attend or who wish to recall its best moments.
In May, 100 years passed since the Coup d'État of May 28, 1926. It began a dictatorship in Portugal that would last almost 48 years. Also about a century ago (1925-1926), the Government of Benito Mussolini approved a set of "Laws for the Defense of the State," known as the "Leggi fascistissime," which institutionalized the process of the country's fascization, which only April 25, 1945, would end. Starting from this double centenary, we talked about how these two dictatorships were born, what factors most contributed to the capitulation of their respective parliamentary regimes (republican, in the Portuguese case; monarchical, in the Italian case).
It was also an opportunity to look at and discuss the current political moment in both countries. Can the historical parties of the Portuguese political system and the new President of the Republic learn from the Italian experience? What results have the main approaches to far-right forces produced — essentially, the cordon sanitaire or the mimicry of their political ideas? We framed the Italian and Portuguese cases within the broader European context and sought to understand what have been the main causes of the rise of radical right-wing parties and movements in countries such as Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, England, Hungary, Poland, or Sweden.
The conversation about these two topics with our guests led to a debate with the audience that lasted almost an hour. Italian fascism was compared, being more revolutionary and, at least in appearance, more future-oriented, with Portuguese fascism, which was more nostalgic. As Alice Samara noted, Salazar's new man was, in fact, an old man.
Salazar's "new man" was an old man
Marcello Sacco reminded us that Italy has functioned as a laboratory, where new things seem to be prototyped before appearing elsewhere. We also discussed what citizens who do not identify with the values and ideas of these radical right-wing movements, nor wish to live in electoral autocracies, in the accurate expression of Italian historian Steven Forti, like Putin's Russia or Orbán's Hungary, can do.
Italy as a "laboratory" and what we can do
The writer Eduardo Galeano, in his book Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World (Caminho, 2002), answers the question "Does history repeat itself?" with another: "Or does it only repeat itself as penance for those who are unable to hear it? There is no silent history. No matter how much they burn it, no matter how much they tear it, no matter how much they deny it, human history refuses to be silenced."
Our thanks to Maria Alice Samara and Marcello Sacco for helping us listen to History, as well as to everyone who joined us on a very special night.
Visiting Room, Caxias, by Júlio Pomar (1947), Oil on paper mounted on particleboard 54.6 x 89 cm. Collection of the Neo-Realism Museum. Photograph: © EGEAC, Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar, António Jorge Silva. © Fundação Júlio Pomar/SPA.
At just 21 years old, Júlio Pomar was arrested in Évora for being a member of the board of the Youth Democratic Unity Movement and was imprisoned for four months in Aljube and Caxias. His subsequent work reflected this harsh experience. The work "Parlatório" evokes prison visits, always in a context of strong surveillance. The Parlatório of Peniche Fortress — now the National Museum of Resistance and Freedom — where a reproduction of this work is displayed, is like a capsule of that time that must not be forgotten. Nor repeated.
Maria Alice Samara was born in Lisbon in April 1974. With a PhD in Contemporary Institutional and Political History from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the NOVA University of Lisbon, she is a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History (IHC – NOVA FCSH). She has worked on topics related to the First Republic and, more recently, regarding the Estado Novo period, she has dedicated herself to studies on Resistance, space, and memory. She is the author of several books.
Marcello Sacco was born in Lecce (Italy) and has lived in Lisbon for about 30 years. He is an Italian teacher, translator, and journalist. He currently collaborates with the Ansa Agency and the newspaper Il Foglio, and in Portugal, he has collaborated with Diário de Notícias and RTP. He has several journalistic and academic publications on Italian, Lusophone, and Iberian politics and culture. He is the author of several narrative books and the essay Salazar. Ascesa e caduta di un dittatore tecnico (new edition in 2025). As a translator, he has published various Portuguese and Brazilian authors in Italy, including Raul Brandão, Agustina Bessa-Luís, José Gil, and Almeida Faria.