In 1992, Sousa Lara removed Saramago from the European Literary Prize. Lara ended up in the Chega party, which he left to avoid losing his lifetime subsidy; Saramago went on to receive the Nobel Prize. Cavaco did not attend his funeral. And the spirit of Lara still hangs over the PSD. The only Portuguese literature Nobel laureate may no longer be required reading in schools. The right, with its homogenising vision of national identity, cannot bear that someone with Saramago's profile is a symbol of our culture. Or is it just another poorly handled affair?