How Cool Is Lisbon?(Brief Article)

When designer Marco Sousa Santos came out with a series of glassware, he called it Sweet Revolution. It was a reference, in part, to the rebellious glassmakers who helped overthrow Portugal's fascist regime. But it was also a nod to a more current revolution going on in Lisbon. For the past seven years, Sousa Santos has helped create a new style of design--one that looks to the clean, contemporary lines of Scandinavian work, but with a modern Portuguese flair.

The testament to his success is that, today, he is at the center of a cultural rebirth that's transforming Lisbon from a backwater into one of Europe's most vibrant capitals. Aging roads have been overhauled, magnificent squares are being restored and a whole stretch of the riverfront, once home to an abattoir and a petrochemical plant, is morphing into a vibrant, imaginatively designed suburb. Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava's magnificent, glass-and-steel train station has revitalized a decaying industrial neighborhood; the sleek Vasco da Gama Bridge, spanning the Tagus River, firmly links Lisboans with the rest of Europe.

All this has taken money--lots of it. Portugal's socialist government, backed by wads of European Union development aid, has spent heavily over recent years to transform Lisbon into an international cultural and civic showcase. But the question is: are those good times about to end, or at least lose a bit of their sparkle? Three months ago Portugal's socialist Prime Minister Antonio Guterres was ousted for mismanaging the economy and running up massive debts. Last week a new center-right government was elected, promising to rein in spending. Adding insult to injury, the EU a few days later warned Portugal that it was running up against the deficit ceilings allowed by Brussels-- effectively mandating further belt-tightening.

It's hard to speculate about what economically stingier times might mean for Lisbon. But if they put a cap on its bubbling cultural scene, that would be a shame. With its face to the Atlantic and its back to the rest of Europe, Lisbon hasn't been the center of anything since its 16th-century kings ruled a global empire and its explorers found new lands to trade with and conquer. Portugal's development during the 20th century was stunted by the 44-year dictatorship of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, whose brutal regime cut off the country from the rest of Europe. Today a new generation of young, innovative Portuguese know they cannot afford to isolate themselves.

Those who will graduate from high school this spring are a new breed-- the first to have been born as EU members. And their only slightly older siblings, or perhaps young parents, are ...