I think it is quite safe to say that Portugal is a relatively free country. In terms of elections, they most recently had a an election in 2015 and Portugal has put a lot of effort into curbing corruption as a whole. Additionally, the assembly that is the legislature in Portugal has 230 and they are elected every four years and the president can serve up to two consecutive five year terms. On the whole, Portugal has done a very good job in terms of maintaining a free country and free for thought.
According to Bleich, the Portuguese have many provisions in their government to combat against the uprising of any fascist type regimes, a consciousness that was acquired after World War 2 in 1945. According to Bleich, in Portugal, like a few other western European countries, have a laws in place to punish any types of Holocaust deniers and any kind of overall Holocaust denial. More specifically, what Portugal aims to do with this type of policy is stop speech that denies war crimes. Overall, Portugal has done an extremely good job to maintain freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of assembly, and in comparison with Bleich have done a good job in maintaining Holocaust deniers.
In terms of dealing with Russia, Portugal has always had pretty positive relations with Russia. Russia has a full embassy in Lisbon, Portugal and the Portuguese have a full embassy in Moscow, Russia. According to different Russian news sources, the Russians are extremely supportive of the growing relationship between the two countries and they both find it quite valuable. Russia views Portugal as a good partner who has an in with both NATO and the EU. All in all, this relationship is entirely positive and it is hard to find a real negative interaction between the two of them.
Bleich, Erik. The Freedom to Be Racist?: How the United States and Europe Struggle to Preserve Freedom and Combat Racism. Oxford University Press, 2011.
Taylor, Simon. “Portugal Must Sail Closer to Russia’s Wind.” POLITICO, POLITICO, 12 Apr. 2014, www.politico.eu/article/portugal-must-sail-closer-to-russias-wind/.
“Portuguese Foreign Relations.” CEPESE | CENTRO DE ESTUDOS DA POPULAÇÃO, ECONOMIA E SOCIEDADE, 12 Nov. 2017, www.cepese.pt/portal/en/investigacao/grupos/relacoes-externas-de-Portugal.
“Portugal.” Freedom House, 1 Dec. 2016, freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2016/portugal.
Your post was very easy to follow and well written. I liked how your main point that Portugal is a relatively free country came right in the beginning and you went on the expand on this with the explanation of its election process. I feel you can add on some of exact laws in place that make Portugal a country of maintaining its freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of assembly. I would also suggest to think about adding some textual support from Bleich especially when talking about the Holocaust deniers. Your section about Russian and Portugal had a nice flow to it and was easy to follow their good relations. I would also suggest to add in some evidence from the Russian new sources you touched upon about Russia and Portugal’s growing relations.