Rui Moreira had guaranteed that he would act on his “own decision” and remove the statue of Camilo Castelo Branco, from the Largo Amor de Perdição, in Porto, despite a petition, with more than six thousand signatures, asking otherwise. However, the mayor of Porto is now taking a step back.
“Contrary to the information in the possession of the mayor of Porto, the donation also provided for the placement of the structure in Largo Amor de Perdição, a donation that had been approved by the municipal executive in 2012,” explains the statement sent to the newspaper Público to the Lusa agency, to which the Observer also had access.
The note also reveals that, “in this context, “The president of the Chamber cannot simply agree to what is requested by the undersigned, which is public knowledge.”.
“Naturally, This does not prevent the matter from being raised in the same municipal body in the future and at any time.”ends.
According to the minutes of the municipal executive board of October 23, 2012, “the acceptance of the donation of the statue was unanimously approved,” says Público.
This is a step back from Rui Moreira’s decision, but it may just be a delay in realizing his wish to remove the statue. In fact, this Friday the mayor confirmed that he was going to act on his behalf, having He used the terms “ugly” and “bad taste” to refer to the work of Francisco Simões.
Its my desicion. There are things in which I have to listen to the bodies, there are things in which I have to listen to the population, there are things in which I have to decide when I know that there are extreme positions on both sides. Here there are those who want it and those who don’t. [retirar a estátua do largo]The people who approached me about this matter are people who we have to recognize who have the merit of going through this,” the mayor told Lusa.
The president made this decision after receiving a petition, with 37 signatories, including the former leader of the CDS and State Councilor, António Lobo Xavier, the former communist deputy Honório Novo and the jurist and former banker Artur Santos Silva, who asked for “the hygienic favor” of removing the statue.
Rui Moreira orders the removal of a statue of Camilo, after a petition asking for the “outrage” of being “embraced by a more or less pornographic specimen”
It was the representation of the woman in the statue, who appears naked hugging the figure of the Portuguese writer. Many considered that it was Ana Plácido, the great love of Camilo Castelo Branco’s life. Among them Ilda Figueiredo, councilor of the CDU chamber.
The former MEP was one of the signatories, who judged the “way in which men and women are treated”: “Ana Plácido was an extraordinary woman who remains undervalued there. They want to make her naked, well, I don’t object, as long as Camilo is also naked. Either both of them naked, or both of them dressed,” she told Público.
When Francisco Simões clarified that The woman in the statue “is not, she never wanted to be, Ana Plácido”representing “the women portrayed in the novel love of perdition“Ilda Figueiredo changed her mind. In addition to saying that “this controversy no longer makes sense” – “not even what I signed” – he added his name to another petition created in the meantime.
“For the non-removal of the Statue of Camilo, in Porto” is a public petition that already has more than six thousand signatures, as of the date of publication of the news. The text condemns the fact that “only now, after 11 years, is there a humiliation of the naked woman in favor of a clothed man.” “It didn’t seem like it at the time, it doesn’t seem like it today,” she guaranteed.
In this way, he asked that “the aforementioned statue be kept in its place” and that there be no “desire to begin to eliminate or hide others, given that they are facts with a past and history”.
Someone who shares the same opinion is Camilo’s great-great-granddaughter, Ângela Castelo Branco, who told Rádio Observador that, “as a descendant,” she felt that “that was aberrant”: “This is not Camilo. There are half a dozen gentlemen who must believe they are owners of Porto or Portugal who signed a petition that makes no sense and that opens the possibility of destroying the heritage,” she stated on the Contracorriente program.
Camilo Castelo Branco’s great-great-granddaughter says the controversy over the statue is “abhorrent.” New petition fights to keep the job
Rui Moreira reacted to the request by stating that he had no intention of “demolishing or melting the statue”: “He will leave there and tomorrow another president may come who wants to have the statue there again,” he stated, before reversing the decision.
Source: Observadora
