The President of the Republic (PR) warned this Monday in statements to journalists in Olhão, on the sidelines of a visit to a school, about the attacks in that city against Nepalese immigrants (immigrants with whom, moreover, Marcelo also found himself and apologized to them)
While rejecting what he considers Portugal to be a xenophobic country, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa added: “The aging of European societies has led to what I call fear, a reactive, defensive attitude and therefore a rejection of differences, and from there xenophobia is one small step and you have to be aware of that small step because it means less democracy and even less respect for what our experience is as a country of emigrants.”
Therefore, since Portugal is a country with at least two million emigrants scattered around the world (twenty percent of the population lives in the national territory), “we have a duty to better understand the foreign immigrants who chose to live in Portugal “. “How come we don’t understand what others feel here?” asked the PR.
Marcelo also explained why he so quickly decided to visit the Nepalese who were attacked in Olhão (the news broke on Friday because one of the attacks was filmed and later broadcast on social networks): “That’s exactly when it happened, and That’s why I was so quick, that these issues need to be addressed Because when it’s three months, four months, five months, six months, reality becomes trivial And when it becomes trivial, what can’t be considered normal becomes, normal. “
The president also lamented Saturday’s fire at a Mouraria building in Lisbon, which killed two (one of them was 14) and injured 14 (including five children), all of them Indian immigrants. According to information from the authorities, the building is mainly inhabited by Indian citizens and the fire affected 25 people (24 residents and one non-resident), leaving 22 people homeless.
The association Renovar a Mouraria warned of the “extremely fragile” situation in which a group of people, immigrants, who are “completely invisible”, but who make the city function in a development model based on tourism. “It is necessary to warn [cidadãos] national governments, but also our rulers, for the extremely fragile situation in which lives a group of people who are totally invisible, but who are at the same time a group of people who make the city work within the development model based on tourism,” said Lusa Filipa Bolotinha.
The Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa housed all displaced persons and civil protection made sure that the building was not structurally affected. Carlos Lopes Loureiro, from Lisbon’s municipal civil protection service, warned the owners to promote “quick” works that will make the building habitable again.
The president of the parish council of Santa Maria Maior, the socialist Miguel Coelho, stressed that his municipality has no supervisory powers in the field of housing. So, he said, a “massive” inspection by the Food and Economic Authority and by the municipal police is needed.
Source: DN
