It was to create a contrast between the powers that the presidents of the republic did not have a hundred years ago with the powers they have now, that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa recalled his prerogatives, while the Prime Minister reminded him a few steps ago, during the celebration ceremony of October 5, 1910, took place as always in Largo do Município, in Lisbon, the place where 112 years ago the founding of the Republic was proclaimed.
“What I meant was: fear not, because what happened to the First Republic will not happen, what ended in a dictatorship because no alternatives were born.”
“Today we have a democracy where millions of people vote directly for the president of the republic, and the president has the power to veto laws and dissolve parliament,” said the president of the republic, who always tried to emphasize that the first republic (1910-1926) ended up in a dictatorship because, contrary to what happens today, it did not create the mechanisms of ‘political alternative’ that would democratize the regime.
“What I meant was: don’t be afraid, because what happened to the First Republic will not happen, that ended in a dictatorship because there were no alternatives,” he would explain to journalists later in the afternoon, at the Palácio de Belém, whose gates were opened to the people. In a harsh diagnosis of what the period was immediately after the end of the monarchy – harsh and controversial among historians – Marcelo would even say that the dictatorship that came after 1926 – and lasted until April 25, 1974 – came about only because the 1st Republic was a “dead regime”, by preventing such “alternatives”. Today in a democratic regime there are “always alternatives” that “come from those in power or from others”, according to their merits, which is “life”.
In his 11-minute speech in Largo do Município, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke of governments that “almost always tend to think of themselves as eternal” and of contradictions “almost always irritated by the wait”, then stated that “nothing is eternal and that “democracy is by its very nature the domain of the alternative, its own or someone else’s”.
“We know how mistakes, omissions, incompetence, inefficiencies in democracy weaken and kill it. We know how dictatorships begin, what they are and how long they last, and how hard it is to restore democracy after them.”
Recalling the times of war and pandemic of a century ago, the head of state believed that the Portuguese republican regime at the time did not know how to renew and democratize itself in time, but that Portugal as a democratic republic can learn today from “the lessons from 1922” to face “no longer or not yet dictatorships, but illiberal authoritarianism, that is, non-democratic”. “We know how mistakes, omissions, incompetence, inefficiencies in democracy weaken and kill it. We know how dictatorships begin, what they are and what they last, and how hard it is to restore democracy after them,” he said. “And because we have today and know what we didn’t have and knew in 1922, we know that there is a path for all of us within democracy. And that it depends on us alone, even in a post-pandemic world and on war, not just to be very different from the Portugal of 1922, but to be better than us every day and better in the future.”
“We celebrate freedom, we celebrate democracy, we celebrate the Republic, three realities that did not exist in 1922. And it is the three that give us the certainty that history will never end. And rebuild this history, day after day , thinking of the Portuguese.”
The president of the republic added that “there are always more realities in democracy, more solutions, more energy for change than those that seem to exist at any moment” and that is celebrated on October 5, “by lucky coincidence, Teacher’s Day, education and the future”. “We celebrate freedom, we celebrate democracy, we celebrate the Republic, three realities that did not exist in 1922. And it is the three that give us the certainty that history will never end. And rebuild this history, day after day , thinking of the Portuguese,” he added. Finally: Celebrating the Republic, Marcelo managed to slow down the 1st Republic.
Before Marcelo, the host of the ceremony, Carlos Moedas (PSD), Mayor of Lisbon, spoke.
The mayor recalled the brutality of the republicans who implemented this regime in Portugal 112 years ago to defend a country that is liberating the Portuguese from the “tax yoke that has become unbearable”.
“Faced with the perils of this world, in which war has returned to Europe and in which the spiral of inflation is hitting especially the most vulnerable, the will for change that the nation has shown at equally critical times in the past is an inspiration to all of us, not to give in to resignation, passivity and discouragement,” he said.
“The president of the republic is of course the president of all Portuguese, he is the voice of the Portuguese who have no voice and therefore of course he must express the feeling of the country, the feeling of the nation.”
According to Moedas, “the challenges facing the country require courage, not resignation”. “We can’t resign ourselves to some economic stagnation,” he said. He also defends that he “increasingly wants a country that is prepared for an increasingly competitive world; a country that frees the Portuguese from the tax yoke that is becoming unbearable for their lives”.
The action advocated by the mayor mainly concerns being able to make decisions in the areas of care, education, energy transition and housing. And this action, “when it cannot come from the central state, must be carried out by the municipalities, which have the most direct political responsibility over the citizens”.
Once the ceremony was over, the prime minister commented on the president’s speech, establishing a dichotomy between who speaks and who does.
“We don’t speak. We act, we act, we solve it. This is the fundamental function of government.”
“The president of the republic is of course the president of all Portuguese, he is the voice of the Portuguese who have no voice and therefore of course he must express the feeling of the country, the feeling of the nation,” he said. said.
Immediately added: “We don’t speak. We act, we do, we solve it. This is the fundamental function of the government”. So he continued, “listening to the voice of the Portuguese, it is up to us what is not up to anyone else, which is to find solutions to solve problems”. According to him, the government is “very attentive to what is happening in the country, to what is happening in the world”, and involved in “taking into account the economic situation, adopting a series of policies that strengthen confidence”.
Costa also took the opportunity to praise the PR speech, saying it was “very important for the country” as it “shows how, despite the times of enormous uncertainty, Portugal is now “in a situation that cannot be overstated.” compare with a hundred years ago”.
Source: DN
