Is common in the public opinion to associate
Freemasonry with
party-politics. This is a remark multiplicated that to have a political career any candidate to politician should be initiated in the Royal Art. Names are thrown to the eyes of the public confirming this assertion. The two main parties of the Democratic Arc have been appointed has the battleground of these ambitions and these personages. We may say that some people mix masonic and political ambitions for the sake of their interests, normally lucrative; but the majority of people that approach the Craft have no such design. It this allegation is so truthful as some insist it is foreseeing
a "Ritual of Passage" between the two fields probably we may have, in a French style, a lobby of Freemasons in the Parliament, or a League of Masonic Ministers and past-Ministers. Nothing exists like this, except in the
imagination of some folks that after
reading Dan Brown very amusing fictions reach the conclusion they know
everything about freemasonry.
Freemasons are normally discreet as its their own right to
unveil their qualities of Freemasons; although some folks like to make the show for the audience when they discuss masonic topics in public. It is well-known the anecdote of a current politician that confessed to a journalist to be a high-ranking Freemason (of a higher degree) because he received a letter from the Grand Secretary informing him that he was raised. But normally Brothers don't allow themselves to be the joke around the media.
We may confess, however that till the second decade of the twentieth century, to be a Freemason was a favourable condition to be appointed Minister or Member of the Parliament, namely if "our Party" was in office (above the board of the Republican Party). The
First Republic is a good example of this masonic confusion with the terrible outcome of the
"National Revolution" of 1926. Since the foundation of the
Third Republic, there is no such appealing to become a Freemason for the enthusiasts of a successful political career. There are reasons for that: the first, to be pointed out as a Freemason doesn't give any complimentary
status; second, (it) exposes the politician to the nation sport , the "cunha"; and thirdly, it may fragilize the candidate to the hostility of those who within their own party dislike Freemasonry . Of course there will be people that believe exactly the opposite. Let them be happy, though.
