Today the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation arrives at the cycle of conferences aimed at debating “the fragility of democratic institutions in Portugal”. The aim is to raise “fundamental and future issues” that the parties “did not debate” during the last parliamentary elections, explains DN Vítor Ramalho, president of Associação Participar+, which promotes the event, stressing that the first session will focus on “challenges of globalization”.
“It does not mean that the party programs do not contain” approaches to the central themes of these sessions, “but they are not debated, and this has led to the creation, in 2020, of Participar+,” continues the president of the citizens’ association. . “There is no major news that attracts media attention that is not related to environmental problems, climate change, the problem of migration processes, aging population, but also everything related to artificial intelligence and natural sciences,” emphasizes Vítor Ramalho.
To reach people and highlight issues, the guest panel is composed of “personalities who dominate these areas”, such as Ombudsman Maria Lúcia Amaral, the director of Participar+ points out. “Citizens, if they want to file a complaint and don’t go to court, who do they turn to? The ombudsman,” he explains, adding that it is useful that “the ombudsman is accountable for the portrait that she herself paints of society. based on the flow of complaints from citizens.”
Highlight with an example
The founder of Participar+ sees politicians as one of the problems that need to be addressed. “There is a growing dissatisfaction among citizens towards politics” and “this has general causes that need to be addressed,” says Vítor Ramalho.
Based on this analysis, the association leader points out that “politicians” do not “set examples that serve citizens”, and that this is something that needs to change. “She [os políticos] they are always references and are seen as personalities in which the people themselves and also the voters see themselves. Despite recognizing that “politicians are men and women” and that they therefore “have flaws and qualities,” it rejects a moralistic reading. of these sessions and focuses on humanism: “I am not advocating that people are the Lord’s anointed. They are not. People have positive and negative aspects. It is about the whole,” he concludes.
The challenges of the media
The opening speech will be delivered by former Prime Minister Francisco Pinto Balsemão, whom Vítor Ramalho sees as “the most qualified person to be able to also talk about the past and how the democratic regime was built when it comes to the future.” The former Social Democratic leader and businessman in the communications sector will not only be one of the milestones in the beginning of democracy in Portugal, as he is one of the last leaders of the Constituent Assembly still alive, but also the challenges of the media.
How will the media ‘answer the questions of the future, taking into account the enormous and often unfair competition that exists? Or else without any principle, as happens in certain social networks? How do you defend freedom at this level, and freedom of expression itself?”, asks the association leader, leaving the answer to today’s session.
Strategic places
Each of the following sessions will take place in a neighborhood that serves as a reference for democracy and is linked to the themes themselves. If in Lisbon, in Gulbenkian, the “challenges of globalization” will be addressed, in Setúbal, because it is a district characterized by work, Vítor Ramalho emphasizes, the goal will be to talk about “the degradation of public services to inequality of opportunity’. “.
With an identical recipe, the session in Aveiro, where “even before April 25, the democratic opposition congresses were held”, will begin “from the promises of political parties to the effective exercise of politics”. And because in Porto it is a neighborhood “closely linked to freedom”, which recalls the liberal movement of 1820, the journey will be made “from the arrogance of power to the reaction of the citizens”, explains Vítor Ramalho out.
Source: DN
