“Celebrate November 25 because all dates count. And this one in particular – November 25 – is becoming increasingly important. Nearly 50 years have passed since the end of Salazar’s dictatorship. 50 years of April. But celebrating April is “In itself an incomplete exercise. Something was missing. That something that was missing was November 25,” Carlos Moedas declared at the ceremony commemorating the date at Lisbon City Hall.
Carlos Moedas argued that “reviving the memory is what every mature democracy must do,” noting that “reviving the memory” of what the country “has gotten to this point also means remembering November 25” and thus “the victory of democracy in the field of democracy”. any form of totalitarianism”.
Carlos Moedas said he did not want a country without memory and recalled November 25 as a moment when he saw how the country was divided: between those who “wanted to take power by force, and those who wanted a peaceful democratic transition.” “.
“The latter won, with their great representative in the figure of the then Lieutenant Colonel Ramalho Eanes, to whom the country owes eternal gratitude,” emphasized the President of the Lisbon Municipality.
In the words of the PSD mayor, November 25 meant “the victory of democracy over every form of totalitarianism” and “the victory of democracy over radicalism”, at a time when, he said, “there are models of totalitarianism for everyone existed’. flavors”.
“This wasn’t just a fantasy of some minds. It also corresponded in practice to a power project,” said Carlos Moedas, emphasizing that this “power project could have put the Portuguese on a dangerous path of friction, conflict and –. perhaps even – to a civil war”.
“These were the times when military power was intended to be a monopolist and engine of political power. These were the times when some wanted revolutionary legitimacy rather than electoral legitimacy. These were the times of agricultural reforms, nationalization of banking, insurance, some of the industry. Those were the times when so many businesses were destroyed across the country and led the country to economic ruin,” Moedas criticized.
The PSD mayor emphasized that “all this is unthinkable today” for the Portuguese and that “if it is unthinkable, we owe it to November 25, 1975.”
However, Carlos Moedas warned of new dangers on the horizon, saying: “Today we see radicalism on the left and right attacking the moderates. There is a void, filled by vocal minorities, and there is radical activism. In the absence of moderate social activism that provides concrete answers, it is these radicalisms that people cling to.”
Carlos Moedas recalled the day when “democracy defeated extremism” and pointed to the heroes of that date, namely General Ramalho Eanes, Jaime Neves, Melo Antunes and all the soldiers of the group of nine, praising “the moderate soldiers who knew how to interpret the will of the Portuguese people – who knew that the legitimacy of the vote is the only legitimacy that counts in a democracy.”
General Rocha Vieira also spoke at the ceremony, arguing that celebrating April 25 implies celebrating November 25 and vice versa.
Source: DN
