Optimist by nature and by political convictions, the president of the Assembly of the Republic is cautious about the success of the ceasefire in force in the Gaza Strip and affirms that Hamas is responsible for what is happening. For the current president of the Assembly of the Republic, nothing justifies terrorism. In this interview with TSF, Augusto Santos praises António Guterres’ mandate as UN Secretary-General, despite the enormous difficulties he had to face, including a paralyzed Security Council, which no longer reflects today’s world. Here, the first part of the interview.
This book has a title that is a verb that implies the action “Connect”, about the main orientations of the foreign policy of Portuguese democracy. Even with the complexity of international relations and what has been happening in the world in recent years, one more aspect is also mentioned at the beginning of the book, the internationalization of the economy, these aspects are not linked. In other words, did you choose the title because there is still work to be done?
I chose the verb connect because it seems to me to convey well what could be the essence of Portugal’s contribution to the international community. Portuguese foreign policy is very easy to characterize. Firstly, in its stability and continuity, since the institutionalization of democracy, therefore since the first constitutional government and then in the great strategic options that structure this stability and continuity that we often rightly say, which are, first of all, European integration – this was the great option of the postcolonial democratic country -; second: continuity in NATO, in NATO, and this new base that is Portugal, a member of the Atlantic Alliance, now as a democracy, because the Atlantic Alliance is the alliance of democracies. Thirdly, attention to communities and the development of a community policy, and not just a policy of support for emigrants. And, fourthly, the CPLP. Hence the common project with countries from several continents united by the same language. And we have very well defined the essentials of our geopolitical positioning. In this logic, having abandoned the colonial empire and the delusional dreams of having a colonial empire in the 20th century, we reposition ourselves in Europe without losing our connection with the world. My opinion is that in the meantime we have been evolving and that is why I proposed using precisely this verb Evolve, which means not to break, but to develop. That is why I proposed adding two more to these four major guidelines, which we have been reinforcing. One is internationalization, the internationalization of our language in our culture, our economy, our higher education and our science. And another is multilateralism, because Portugal, in fact, has become an increasingly important country in multilateral agendas, in fact leading some of these agendas, such as, for example, the Oceans Agenda and global ocean policy. . This is already the logic of the hexagon, which can characterize the essence of our foreign policy. The value added by Portugal to the world lies increasingly in our ability to mediate, to moderate, to understand different realities, to articulate different realities. And that is what the verb connect wants to express.
Do you feel like the first Foreign Minister to say that in 1500 Brazil was “found” by the Portuguese for the Old World?
No, I don’t have that memory. I believe that several other Foreign Ministers and Culture Ministers had made it clear before that the land that came to be called Brazil already existed before the Portuguese arrived. Now, I must say that I have no problem with the word discovery or discovery. In fact, I think it’s a word that should be used.
But is it time or not to start considering the discoveries and that historical period, not only on the side of the feat and discovery itself, but also on the negative side, for the crimes that were committed, for slavery, for the deaths that this occupation of territories resulted in?
Of course, that was the first time about a year ago, if I remember correctly. For the first time, the three heads of Portugal’s political sovereignty bodies have been unanimous in apologizing for the Wiriyamu massacre. He appointed me Prime Minister, I appointed myself and he President of the Republic and that was a very important movement. In fact, the President of the Republic had already apologized, I witnessed it as a multinational company in Sao Tome and Principe, for a massacre committed in colonial times. And I think it’s really important for us to look at the history of our colonialism. As Eduardo Lourenço says in a set of texts that were collected in a book with the impressive title Do Colonialismo, Como Nosso Nosso Inpensado, in reality we have thought little about our colonialism and we should think more. But this does not mean that we should think about colonialism versus discoveries. That is to say, we were at the same time capable of an adventure that is the adventure of maritime expansion from the 15th to the 16th centuries, and then the adventure of the Empire and the construction of countries like Brazil, mobilizing the best of European knowledge over time, crossing Jewish, Arab, Italian, Spanish and our own influences. We anticipated, as Professor Henrique Leitão says, the scientific revolution of the 17th century, doing extraordinary things such as the sea voyage to India, the circumnavigation voyage. Us and the Spanish, naturally. And we must also think about this. This is our memory, this is our inheritance. Therefore, both parts are necessary so that we can understand what we were and what we are.
When the book gives us the figures of Portuguese speakers in countries where Portuguese was adopted as an official language or as one of the official languages, I ask if this is not a failure of Portuguese diplomacy, which considers the language as an instrument of Connection. and also political action, if it is not a failure that only 0.1% of Timorese speak Portuguese after so many investments made in the territory, specifically through Camões, etc.
No, this estimate, in fact, surprised me when I discovered it and I think it needs revision. I systematically used the numbers from the same estimate given to Professor Luís Rato’s team so that these numbers were comparable. What is happening in all cases, including Timor-Leste, in relation to the countries that were Portuguese colonies in the 20th century and have since become independent, is this extraordinary fact: the number of Portuguese speakers has multiplied. It grew a lot in some countries, even exponentially, after independence. Today much more Portuguese is spoken in Angola than, say, the Portuguese spoke then. Much more Portuguese is spoken in Mozambique than before 1974 and so on. And therefore, our language is the language of each of us. I love it and I always quote, and I will not miss the opportunity to quote once again, the phrase with which Mia Couto recreates the famous saying of Fernando Pessoa: My homeland, says Mia Couto, is my Portuguese language, that is, Portuguese . Language that I made mine in the way I speak it, in the way I write it, with the enriched vocabulary it has and in the Mozambican style. Linguists say: the Mozambican variety of spoken Portuguese; And this is very important. Therefore, our language is ours because it belongs to each of us. And it is ours too, because it is the official language of Angola, because the Angolans chose it as such. It is the official language of Mozambique, because the Mozambicans chose it as such. In fact, Mia Couto tells a very, very interesting story, which is that it was at the second Frelimo congress, in 1962, that Frelimo decided that Portuguese would be the state language when Mozambique became independent. And since the Congress was held in Sar-es Salam, in the capital of Tanzania, the minutes were published in English and, therefore, it is in English that the resolution says that Portuguese will also be the language. Samora Machel said that the Portuguese had been the war trophy. That is to say, in a certain sense, the Portuguese language had been taken from the colonizer to become the national language. And we understand why. Because the fact that Portuguese is the national language of Angola was a very important element in the construction of the Angolan State as a unitary State and as a unifier, of course, to counteract tribalist or separatist drifts. And, in the case of Mozambique, too. Mozambique has several very important languages, but Portuguese is the main language, because there are speakers of languages from northern Mozambique who do not understand speakers from southern Mozambique. And, therefore, the vehicular language is Portuguese, it is the language in which people can understand each other.
Source: TSF
