The president of the Assembly of the Republic today highlighted the courage of the soldiers who carried out the April 25th revolution, in a speech in which he also recalled the last fatalities caused by the political police of the previous regime.
In the solemn session commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April in parliament, before the final intervention by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco considered that «one of the great myths» of the day of the revolution «is the slogan, so often repeated, of a day without blood».
«Ladies and gentlemen, there are at least four families who disagree with this idea. That day there were people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, people who left home to support the revolution, people who never returned home,” he said, receiving applause afterwards, especially from PS and PSD deputies.
According to the president of parliament, «they were the last victims of the regime's political police and it is time to say their names in this room: Fernando Giesteira, Fernando Barreiros dos Reis, João Arruda and José Barneto».
«It’s not enough to say their names, you have to express gratitude. This week I took the initiative to invite families to, for the first time, attend this solemn session. The invitation was for them to see with their own eyes what the sacrifice of their own achieved. Seeing us and hearing us. And here it is, the family of Fernando Barreiros dos Reis,” he said. Words that led all the deputies to applaud.
In his first speech, in a solemn session on April 25th, as President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco highlighted the courage of the military who overthrew the Estado Novo regime.
«If the 25th of April had failed, the only ones who wouldn't have a tomorrow would be these men. And they knew it. They all knew it. And they still did it. And most of them did it again on November 25th, 1975, he pointed out, here in an allusion to the end of the Ongoing Revolutionary Process (PREC).
The former Minister of Defense later maintained that, on April 25, 1974, in the case of the military, «it was easier not to go out, to have a pretext or to invent an excuse, it was easier to opt for neutrality or remain halfway ».
“None of them would be judged for staying. Everyone would be judged for doing. This is the definition of courage – and physical, concrete, real courage. Because speeches, like this one, are made up of words, of friendly intentions. But history is made of courage and actions,” he added.
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