Academics have reacted in dismay to news that former PSD leader Pedro Passos Coelho will be lecturing at Lisbon’s renowned ISCSP (Superior Institute of Politics and Social Sciences).
They explain he simply doesn’t have the credentials for the post, suggesting the institute has become a “form of academic Estoril (seaside haunt near Lisbon) for political exiles and victims of austerity”.
Passos Coelho will be teaching public administration and economy.
He won’t be the first political exile to walk into a job for which most people need a doctorate, explain reports.
Former Socialist leader António José Seguro is another one of the institute’s lecturers, says SIC television, adding that the “place doesn’t rekindle very good memories”: in 2013, the former prime minister was met by banner-waving students calling for his resignation.
As criticism -some of it quite vitriolic – continues over social media, the truth is that Professor Passos will be turning up for work at the State-funded institution for the academic year starting in September, while two other ‘seats of learning’ are also reported to be keen to bring him onboard.
Says Observador one of the institutions is “also State-funded, the other private”.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
