Last week we learned that the company that has a monopoly on the distribution of newspapers and magazines decided to stop providing this service in the interior of the country. The reason given is simple: in vast areas there is no longer enough market to offset the respective costs.
This episode illustrates what has been happening with many other services in the interior, such as health, education, justice, transport or the post office. It also reveals the impact of the lack of effective political representation in depopulated territories. In fact, we are not just talking about newspapers and magazines but about access to citizenship rights that have become progressively dependent on the postal code.
Despite this, the debate about the future of representation of the Portuguese territory remains stuck in the recurring dilemma about Regionalizing or maintaining the current model. But thirty years after the referendum, the central issue is no longer discussing maps, but rather the representation of people and the territories where they live. And there is a simpler and faster institutional alternative to correct the political invisibility of the interior: the creation of a second territorial chamber in Parliament capable of ensuring that the entire country, and not just the long coastal strip, is present in the room where the future is decided.
Regionalization has clear merits and is written into the Constitution. But it became an unfinished novel of Portuguese political life. It requires a referendum, a new administrative division, the creation of regional governments and a profound redistribution of powers. It is a total reform, heavy and difficult to reach consensus. And while the institutional architecture is not discussed, the territory is silently emptying. The problem is urgent, but the process is slow. The second chamber responds precisely to this lag.
Unlike regionalization, which reorganizes the territory, the second chamber reorganizes political representation. It does not create new bureaucracies or multiply levels of government. By giving voice back to regions that have lost it, regardless of their population, it does something simple and essential. Today, Alentejo elects eight deputies and Lisbon almost fifty. This asymmetry translates into an unavoidable political fact. Vast areas of the country have little say in the decisions that shape its future.
Regionalization focuses on creating centers of power in the territory. The second chamber is committed to bringing the territory to the center of national power. In a country where half of the municipalities lose inhabitants, the decisive question is not which of these reforms is more ambitious. This is the one that responds most quickly to the disappearance of forgotten territories.
In a second territorial chamber, each region would have equal representation. Political voice would no longer depend solely on population density. The Interior would no longer be a distant place but would once again become an integral part of the Republic. Decisions on territorial planning, water, forestry, mobility, energy, agriculture or European funds would be scrutinized in light of the concrete reality of the territories.
A second territorial chamber is the most pragmatic way to ensure that Portugal stops being a country where only the regions with the most people are heard and finally becomes a country where empty regions also count. If the Interior is disappearing, it is not because of lack of space on maps. It’s because of a lack of voice.
Guest professor UCP/UNL/UÉ