The Minister of National Defense considered today that Portugal still has duties to fulfill “in a fair policy for former combatants”, to better address their social or health problems.
“Portugal still has duties to fulfill in a fair policy for former combatants that aims to better address, for example, the social and health problems that still persist and honor the soldiers who live this memory, made this sacrifice and fulfilled with honor the mission assigned to them. was awarded”, said Nuno Melo, in Batalha (Leiria).
In the ceremonies commemorating the 106th anniversary of the Battle of La Lys and Combatant's Day, Nuno Melo, in his first trip as minister, acknowledged that the XNUMXth century was “difficult for the Portuguese”, highlighting, “due to their relationship with the today and for the infinite memories it carries, a war in Africa for more than a decade”.
“Due to the nature of this war, the combatants of this war, and the nation as a whole, no one asked whether the conflict, already in the second half of the century, in the midst of the rise of movements for access to independence, would make political sense”, he said.
Those who “lost their lives in the operational theaters of that war, those who were injured or disabled and those who survived and are still” alive are part of the History of Portugal, declared the minister, paying tribute to them.
In a speech in which he quoted former CDS leader Adriano Moreira (1922-2022), from the same party as Nuno Melo, according to whom Portugal was “a country forged by soldiers”, the minister clarified that the Government program “has not yet been legitimized by the Assembly of the Republic”, asking for understanding for the short intervention.
However, the governor promised, soon, “the opportunity to express the fundamental lines of action for National Defense in this legislature, including the issues of human resources of the Armed Forces, their infrastructure and equipment, the conceptualization adapted to new threats, the social policy in this sector and also, naturally, the care and dignity of former combatants”.
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