Portugal has weight in the European Union, but talking about possible national figures (including Prime Minister António Costa) at the head of the European institutions is premature for now. The position is taken by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who spoke yesterday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
After lunch with Portuguese officials in the European Parliament, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that despite the internal disagreements between sovereign bodies (president and government), he managed to prove “the weight, a lot of weight” that both the members of the European Parliament and government have community level. “Both the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for European Affairs [Tiago Antunes]whether representation in terms of embassy weigh heavily,” praised the head of state.
So seven years later, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was back in the European Parliament, where he had already been in 2016, shortly after being elected for the first time. Yesterday he was again in the Community Parliament, where he was received by Roberta Metsola (who will visit Portugal in June, during the Council of State), with whom he met in closed session. At the joint press conference after the meeting, Marcelo downplayed the possible impact of the government’s resignation on the country’s image. “Portugal is and will always be European,” he said, recalling that he spoke seven years ago at a time when Portugal had a government deal with “two parties that had criticized the European Union and European values” (BE and PCP ). “Seven years and a few months [depois de ser eleito] it was about reaffirming the obvious, that it was pro-European, regardless of the president or the prime minister.” not another word about socialist governance.
After the meeting between the two – which was preceded by a ceremony with the Portuguese national anthem and the anthem of Joy (a symbol of the European Union), Marcelo repeated what he had done seven years ago: he gave a speech in the hemicycle. In total it took more than ten minutes. At the end, MEPs gave a standing ovation. The words, this one, focused on “seven essential questions plus one,” which he said was the quest for peace in Ukraine’s war, which he came to define as “illegal, unfair and immoral,” calling Russia a ” shocking mistake”. With the conflict on the doorstep of the Union, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa opined that the group of 27 Member States responded “with solidarity, unity and vision for the future”. Therefore, says Marcelo, the European Union urgently needs “a just and legal peace” to end the conflict.
In a speech focused on the future of Europe and the Union – as he had expected the day before – Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa then listed the other seven priorities. First, he said, it is important for the EU to emerge from the post-war period “as an effective world power”; second, guaranteeing the “enlargement” of Member States; next, he thought, the recovery of “the European economy”; going through the future of community governance and the relationship “with other continents”; ensure the energy and digital transition; and ensure generational solidarity. But, as he had done the day before (during Europe Day), he also spoke of “selfishness” at the heart of the European Union. “Does the EU want to remain closed in on itself? It must not forget that this war has global consequences. It cannot forget or freeze through useless selfishness, partnerships and agreements with continents such as Africa, Latin America. It cannot cause problems with migration and the weight of Europe in the world. National selfishness must give way to the values of the European Union,” he stressed.
These issues, a year before the European elections, present two possible avenues for the EU: “One of them, because of the war and the recovery, to manage daily life, wait for the period after” the elections. The other way is “not stopping at various abstract ideas” or “enjoying debates that have nothing to do with the everyday life of Europeans”. “You can only achieve the future by looking at the long term,” he defended.
In the end, one conviction remained: to defend Portugal, the Portuguese and the president himself that Europe “does not belong to the heads of state or government, not to party leaders, not to other social leaders”. “They are European men and women,” he concluded.
DN traveled at the invitation of the European Parliament.
Source: DN
