The PS found it incomprehensible that the PSD voted against a motion of solidarity with the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, and against another motion in support of the UN call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip . The party led by Luís Montenegro has already responded, accusing PS of aligning with BE’s “radical positions” and instrumentalizing Guterres.
Speaking to Lusa last Friday, the Socialist coordinator of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, Deputy Paulo Pisco, explained that both votes approved by the PS and BE during the meeting of this committee on Thursday, but voted against by the PSD and Chega.
“The PSD’s vote against is completely incomprehensible in light of the events we have witnessed,” said Paulo Pisco, who believed that the attack on António Guterres also “weakens the role of the United Nations.”
The motion of solidarity with the Secretary General of the United Nations was presented by BE at the end of October and shows, in its operative part, solidarity with António Guterres “who rejects the attacks to which he has been exposed by Israel”, and “stresses the need for a ceasefire in the region, access to humanitarian aid and condemnation of war crimes.”
The vote also urges Israel “not to ban the entry of UN representatives and officials and not to ban their access to Gaza and the West Bank.”
The second vote, signed by PS and BE deputies and also delivered at the end of October, expresses solidarity with the UN call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and condemns “absolutely and unequivocally the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7 Israel has carried out. .”
The text reaffirms that “Hamas’ actions do not justify a response based on Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinian people” and condemns “Israel’s disproportionate use of force in the Gaza Strip,” endorsing the text . António Guterres’ call for negotiations on an immediate ceasefire and the need for “a political solution that guarantees the existence of two states”.
“It cannot be denied that there is a huge humanitarian drama that requires a very urgent response,” emphasized Paulo Pisco, who said that “it was a great surprise” of the PSD’s position against these two votes.
According to the PS representative, “voting against it shows enormous insensitivity and enormous indifference towards the role of the United Nations” in areas such as security, poverty, refugees or democracy.
“Attacking the Secretary General of the United Nations is not only an attack on the person of António Guterres, it attacks the entire United Nations system, it weakens his irreplaceable role around the world, it is completely incomprehensible” , he criticized, considering that Guterres “has always been guided by humanistic values, resolving conflicts and responding to humanitarian dramas”.
The PS will not include these votes in the plenary meeting, because they have already been approved in committee, but reiterates that “the only surprise” was the vote against from the PSD, a party that said it did not have “a great explanation” during the meeting ” had given. to justify it.
PSD accuses PS of bringing “the worst of the internal political struggle” into foreign policy
The PSD accused the PS of bringing “the worst of the internal political struggle” into foreign policy and regretted that the Socialists had joined the BE’s “most radical positions” in a vote in which it was assumed they would replace António Guterres instrumentalized.
Speaking to Lusa, the PSD coordinator at the Foreign Affairs Committee, Tiago Moreira de Sá, accused the PS of bringing “the worst of the internal political struggle” to foreign policy, recalling that the two parties even reached consensus reached a common condemnation text. of the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, stressing the country’s right to defend itself “within the framework of international law.”
“I deeply regret that the PS now wants to politicize an issue that should transcend the logic of party politics,” the Social Democratic delegate criticized.
The PSD, he explained, announced during Thursday’s meeting that it would vote against these texts and that it would submit an explanation of vote.
“First, because he believes that the matter is closed and that no one, least of all the Secretary-General of the United Nations, benefits from reviving an issue that he himself declared and is good explained,” he said, referring to the controversy. it involved statements made by António Guterres when he said that the Hamas attacks “did not take place in a vacuum”.
On the other hand, he added that the The PSD does not accept that it is playing into the hands of “certain leftists that want to instrumentalize the Secretary General of the United Nations for the internal political struggle”.
“Thirdly, because the text, in its explanatory part, is an absolutely radical text and I regret that the PS – in a kind of foreign policy – pursues the most radical positions of the BE,” he criticized.
Tiago Moreira de Sá warned that the entire explanatory part of the vote “is radical and does not correspond to the position of the Portuguese state,” a text from “an anti-Israel party.”
Source: DN
