There are still two years and one month left until the day when the 50th anniversary of November 25, 1975 will finally be celebrated – the day that marks the end of the revolutionary period that began in April 1974, when the moderates finally took control. Armed Forces – and this topic already dominates the political agenda. After Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas (PSD) announced that the municipality plans to celebrate the date with a “great initiative”, contradicting the non-celebrations that Augusto Santos Silva (PS) in the parliament had established, yesterday the national PSD supported the opinion of its most important mayor.
He did this through the voice of Joaquim Miranda Sarmento. Questioned by journalists yesterday, the parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats – and inherent member of the PSD’s national leadership – suggested that Parliament should celebrate November 25, 1975, even though it was a disruptive date between left and right (the right wants to celebrate , not on the left).
Sarmento insinuated that parties opposed to this honor can withdraw from the hemisphere if they wish. Recalling the April 2022 session in which the President of Ukraine, Volodomyr Zelensky, spoke (via videoconference) with Portuguese delegates, he recalled: “The PCP was not present in the plenary and we received President Zelensky anyway. I see no reason not to celebrate it. November 25, and I don’t see any reason, even if it is not a consensus, because that is not the practice.”
The decision of the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, not to celebrate the date in Parliament was strongly criticized by the head of the PSD bank: “We are shocked that the President of the Assembly of the Republic Republic does not want to celebrate November 25, perhaps for fear of annoying former ‘apparatus’ partners, but this decision was made and remains solely within the sphere of the President of the Assembly of the Republic’.
‘Consensus means that, regardless of the ideas and proposals that each person intends to present and the reactions they evoke in others, a common position is reached which, although it does not deserve the unanimous vote of all, does not give rise to rejection by This is what has always happened regarding the celebration of April 25 in the Assembly of the Republic, both at the Conference of Leaders and at the Organizing Committee.”
Sarmento even attacked Santos Silva’s arguments a few years ago: “I remember the words of Augusto Santos Silva, I believe in 2007 or 2008, when he said before a demonstration of teachers that democracy in Portugal was thanks to Mário Soares and Salgado Zenha, not Álvaro Cunhal or Mário Nogueira, because it was Mário Soares and Salgado Zenha who fought for democracy against the Estado Novo before April 25, and against the establishment of a communist dictatorship after April 25.
Responding to the PSD bank leader, Santos Silva issued a statement saying that the program for the 50th anniversary celebrations of April 25 – and related dates – had been drawn up by “consensus” by the organizing committee, with representatives from all parties. “Consensus means that, regardless of the ideas and proposals that each person intends to present and the reactions they evoke in others, a common position is reached which, although it does not deserve the unanimous vote of all, does not give rise to rejection by This is what has always happened regarding the celebration of April 25 in the Assembly of the Republic, both at the Conference of Leaders and at the Organizing Committee,” he insisted.
In other words, for Santos Silva, the PSD is not telling the truth when it states that the decision not to celebrate November 25 was solely its decision.
Source: DN
