Marcelo considers that the solemn session of the 25th of April was «a good and not a bad example»

The President of the Republic defended today that the solemn session of the 25th of April is “a good and not a bad example” and that it would be “civicly shameful” for the parliament to now resign from exercising all its powers.

"What would be truly incomprehensible and civically shameful was for an entire country to live this time of sacrifice and surrender and for the Assembly of the Republic to resign from exercising all its powers in a situation in which they were and are more than ever indispensable . And also in this session, which has always been and will be an essential moment of critical and plural control in freedom and democracy – because these are the values ​​of April”, he said.

At the end of the solemn commemorative session of the 46th anniversary of the 25th of April, at the Assembly of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa focused his speech on the defense of this commemoration of the Carnation Revolution, seeking to answer the “doubts of some Portuguese”.

“At a time of confinement for so many Portuguese, as it was at Easter and now in Ramadan, aren't we facing a bad example in a state of emergency, in terms of principles, such as compliance with health directives? No. The state of emergency implies an extraordinary strengthening of the Government's powers. And, because we live in freedom and democracy and it is with them that we want to overcome these crises, the greater the Government's powers, the greater should be the powers of the Assembly of the Republic to control it”, he argued.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stressed that “the Assembly of the Republic has never stopped working, and discussed and voted on the most important in plenary sessions” in recent weeks, “respecting the health directives, as is obviously required”.

The President of the Republic added that “this session is an example of that, a good and not a bad example”, in which “discordant voices were heard that spoke of April 2020, of successes and also of failures, past and present, and of dreams and fears present in a critical situation in national life”.