The President of the Assembly of the Republic expressed the decision that the official commemorations of the 50th anniversary of April 25 would not include celebrations of the 50th anniversary of November 25, 1975, but this Wednesday he added that, as regards his own party, the PS, this controversial date should be marked.
Augusto Santos Silva responded in parliament to a question from Social Democratic deputy Hugo Oliveira on whether or not he believed that November 25, 1975 should be included in the official program of parliamentary commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the Carnation revolution.
“When we discussed this issue in the organizing committee, which we did, I still remember saying: ‘I realize that consensus is not possible, but I must say that I hope my party celebrates November 25.’ I think I responded to you, Mr. Congressman.”
“When we discussed this issue in the organizing committee, which we did, I still remember saying: ‘I realize that consensus is not possible, but I must say that I hope my party celebrates November 25.’ I think I responded to you, sir. . . deputy,” Santos Silva replied. In other words: the PS must celebrate November 25. There is an article in this Wednesday PublicThe party’s parliamentary leader, Eurico Brilhante Dias, assured that his group will not fail to celebrate the date as a step in a “journey that began for us much earlier in the struggle for a free and democratic country, and that continues 25 April 1974, a unique founding and liberation date”.
“This decision [de não comemoração] shows a profound disregard for the history of the consolidation of democracy in Portugal and shows enormous political cowardice, deplorable opportunism and enormous hypocrisy.”
The topic reached Wednesday’s plenary through the chairman of the Liberal Initiative. Rui Rocha sharply criticized Santos Silva, accusing him of not including the military operation of November 25, 1975 in the official program of celebrations in Parliament on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of April 25.
Considering that celebrating November 25 “is indeed a moral obligation,” he argued that “this decision [de não comemoração] shows a profound disregard for the history of the consolidation of democracy in Portugal and shows enormous political cowardice, deplorable opportunism and enormous hypocrisy.”
Santos Silva once again argued that the decision not to celebrate the celebration was not his, but was made by consensus in the April 25 50th Anniversary Organizing Committee, where the parties have seats. And ‘consensus’ means that ‘if there is no unanimity, no parliamentary group opposes it’.
PS deputy Porfírio Silva did not forget in the debate that the far right was also defeated on November 25: “The only winners were those who wanted a representative democracy for all,” he said. Adding that the losers were both those who “thought they could impose revolutionary legitimacy on the democratic legitimacy measured by free elections” and those who “wanted to take the opportunity to send part of the Portuguese left back into hiding , especially when they wanted to make the PCP illegal”.
Source: DN
