The president of the Assembly of the Republic considered this Wednesday that allowing hate speech in parliament would be the “The worst way to respect April 25.of 1974 and called for greater electoral participation of young people.
“What is not tolerable is that the Assembly of the Republic or any other institution of Portuguese democracy is the scene of hate speech. That would also be in the worst way we would have to talk or respect on April 25“Defended Augusto Santos Silva.
The second institutional figure of the State was addressing journalists at the end of a visit to the exhibition “Student Springs: from the crisis of 1962 to April 25”, which is on until August 28 at the National Museum of Natural History and Science, in Lisbon, in which he was accompanied by the Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, and by the former Minister of Justice Francisca Van Dunem.
When asked if he will take a “fresh airIn the parliamentary debate in September, after some moments of tension in recent months, specifically between the President of the Assembly of the Republic and Chega’s parliamentary caucus – which presented a bill to censor it – Santos Silva responded that he did not .
“I must say that the vast majority of ladies and gentlemen have been debating with the vivacity that democracy demands and the respect that human dignity demands”, he stated.
Augusto Santos Silva stressed that it is his obligation “comply with the Constitution and Regulations [da Assembleia da República]”, pointing out that a review of this last text is underway, which the president of the RA “will comply with”.
“The confrontation of ideas is very important, it must be lively, it must be open, it must be confrontational when it should be, always cordially and due respect among civilized people,” he said.
For approximately an hour and a half, the president of parliament visited the exhibition organized by the commemorative commission for the 50 years of April 25, 1974, also accompanied by the executive commissioner, the historian Maria Inácia Rezola, a position previously held by the current minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, before assuming the government.
“We have to celebrate democracy for the future and also for that reason, understand how young people were so important in the 60s and 70s to put an end to the dictatorship in Portugal. is a good way to understand why democracy needs young people so muchcivic action of young people, political participation of young people and incidentally, greater electoral participation of young people”, he appealed.
Taking advantage of the month of August to solve the “Pending business” After visiting this exhibition, one of the objects that most caught the attention of the president of parliament was a Gestetner photocopier, used in the production of clandestine communications of the student associations of the time, provided by the ‘Ephemera’ archive.
“I think this exhibition is a must because it clearly shows what the outbreak of opposition to the Estado Novo regime was like in the 60s, 61, 62, it was a very difficult time for the Estado Novo, with the outbreak of the war colonial, the actions of Henrique Galvão, the democratic military coup in Beja, and here the importance of the student movement that grew until 1974 is clearly shown”, he stressed.
For Santos Silva, “the first great merit of the exhibition is to highlight this river which, along with other rivers, then merged with the ocean of our democratic transition”.
The academic crisis of 1962, which lasted for several months, reached its peak on March 24, 60 years ago, when police forces, at the behest of the Salazar government, charged thousands of students in the area of the Cidade Universitária de Lisbon. , in the absence of the then rector of the Marcelo Caetano University.
Several students were injured and many others arrested, either immediately or in the following days, essentially leaders of student associations.
The protest included a hunger strike and lasted for months.
The Carnation Revolution will be 50 years old on April 25, 2024but this event began to be celebrated, symbolically, in March, when the current democratic regime surpassed the dictatorship in one day, and the festivities will last until December 2026, the month in which the 50th anniversary of the first municipal elections is celebrated, which It took place months after the legislative and presidential elections.
Source: Observadora
