In an interview marking his seven years as head of state, Marcelo expressed “disillusionment” with the position of the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference.
“I don’t even speak as a Catholic. If I spoke as a Catholic, it would be even more blunt.” Interviewed by RTP and the newspaper Público, broadcast on Thursday night on the public television station, the president of the republic was scathing about the position of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference on the abuse of minors in the Church: “All the trouble.”
That is, it “failed on all major points”: “in terms of accountability”, by “failing to take preventive stances” towards priests suspected of abusing minors and “failing in the area of compensation” from victims. “It was the complete opposite” of what it should have been, and this was exacerbated because “the Church is a fundamental institution in society” that “the country needs”. “If it fails in such a basic situation, it will affect the whole country.” Although there is “every one’s side” within the hierarchy, it is now, in the opinion of the head of state, about a “complementary reflection to find new ways”.
In an interview scheduled to mark his seven years as president of the republic, Marcelo, while notoriously good-humoured, was shown to be unsympathetic to both the government and the PSD.
“Today I put my hand under it very little,” he said in relation to the government, after starting to kill in the interview, deeming the PS majority a “warmed-up majority” and “tired” as it only was obtained at the end of six years of administration. “In a context of war and crisis management, we are going about day-to-day business and looking at the short term and not the long term,” he said – but be sure to point out that “after all, the numbers were better than expected. .”
Still, he added, he expects the legislature to go until the end (2026). But – and the solemn warning remains – nothing is guaranteed in this sentence: “Don’t ask me to say I’m relinquishing the power to dissolve the economy. [a Assembleia da República]If, as he explained, reality is “more imaginative than our imagination,” and a “pathological situation” arises that is confirmed “in the irregular functioning of the institutions” as envisaged in the Constitution, then it will dissolve, thus triggering early elections .
But before that, he added – and here in a message to the PSD – another circumstance will have to develop: “The existence of an alternative”. This alternative exists “mathematically but not politically”, as there are two parties (IL and Chega) that do not communicate with each other – “so the votes do not add up”. In addition, for the president, “the alternative to being strong is to have a party that is clearly stronger than the others,” and polls show that is currently not happening. In the meantime, when questioned about the return of Pedro Passos Coelho, he made it clear that the PSD’s solution must include keeping Luís Montenegro in the lead: “Dance those who are in the circle” and “only those who standing outside come in as those who are in the circle leave”.
Health, Housing, TAP and teachers were other topics covered in the interview.
In the case of Education, Marcelo defended that the new forms of strike “are not regulated by law”, necessitating regulation because “society, parents and members of the education community need to know the lines by which they sew”.
The PR also argued for the need for negotiations between the government and unions to continue – although it was difficult to see (“I don’t think it’s possible”) to allow teachers a “full recovery” of their careers. is fair,” he said.
Marcelo also analyzed the differences and convergences between the government and the PSD regarding measures to combat the housing crisis, warning that, with regard to the executive’s proposals, there could be problems of unconstitutionality in the idea of forced rental by the state of private properties not placed on the market. He, meanwhile, criticized the scarce time – seven days – for public discussion of the rulings put forward by the Executive.
Read the “minute by minute” interview in the article below:
Article originally published in DN on March 9, 2023.
Source: DN
