Lula, for better and for worse, is a symbol. This Tuesday he demonstrated himself again in the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal, where a solemn welcome ceremony was held that, paradoxically, closed his five-day state visit, before leaving for Madrid, where his European tour will culminate. The 12 ultra-right deputies of Chega, the third parliamentary force, continued standing with Ukrainian flags and posters against corruption the speech of the Brazilian president and fought the applause of the others with blows on the tables. “Enough of the insults, enough of embarrassing the institutions, enough of embarrassing the name of Portugal,” the president of the Chamber, Augusto Santos Silva, severely reprimanded them, who apologized to the Brazilian for the “incident.” Lula minimized the matter when leaving him as a “ridiculous scene.”
The polarization that Lula arouses had already been shown outside the Assembly —the unicameral Portuguese Parliament—, where demonstrations for and against were held from 9:00 a.m., physically distanced by police control to avoid tensions. Inside the chamber, in addition, there were several scales of protest. In addition to the noisy Chega, the Liberal Initiative group snubbed the Brazilian by absenting himself from his seats, with the exception of the parliamentary spokesman. Lula’s intervention was also coldly received by the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD, center-right), Luís Montenegro, who did not applaud his words although he greeted him courteously.
Before being dismissed by the majority of the deputies with long applause and the song of Grándola, vila morena, the signal that launched the military coup against the dictatorship of Marcelo Caetano 49 years ago today, Lula did not evade references to the war in Ukraine, an issue that separates him from the Portuguese. The Brazilian president once again condemned the Russian invasion, but insisted that “it is necessary to make peace and create the path of dialogue and diplomacy.” Shortly before, Santos Silva had underlined the main difference between the two countries on Ukraine. “The only condition is that the aggressor cease hostilities,” demanded the president of the Assembly.
As in other speeches made these days in Portugal, the Brazilian president briefly dwelled on the mandate of Jair Bolsonaro, this time to disapprove of his management of the pandemic. “Half of the 700,000 coronavirus deaths could have been prevented if it were not for the fake newsthe delay in obtaining vaccines and the denial of science carried out by the extreme right of my country”, he stated.
Lula withdrew before the start of the solemn session dedicated to the Carnation Revolution, where several parliamentary leaders warned about the threat posed by extremist movements. “Our democracy is not only not guaranteed, but it is experiencing the moment of greatest threat,” said the deputy of the leftist Livre formation, Rui Tavares. Something in which the communist deputy Manuel Loff also had an impact: “For years democracy has been threatened again by fascism from whose shadow we thought we had freed ourselves.” “The impoverishment of millions of Portuguese, the degradation of public services and institutions, as well as the lack of direction and design for the country, lead to the discredit of the political system and give room for the growth of populism and extremism, be it from the extreme right, be it from the extreme left,” said PSD spokesman Joaquín Miranda Sarmiento.
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It was also the last speech of the leader of the Bloco, Catarina Martins, on April 25, since the leadership of the party will be renewed in a month. Her words went from the stick to the socialist government to the poetic tone. “A government that hides in victimization with the pandemic or the war, that transforms itself into an advertising agency and powerpoints in which nobody believes, no matter how many carnations he puts on his chest, he does not take care of the April seed ”, he reproached. For his part, the new leader of the Liberal Initiative (IL), Rui Rocha, assured that Lula da Silva did not deserve “the reception” given in the Assembly.
André Ventura, the leader of Chega, has the ability to expose the weaknesses of the system and turn them into his flag, as is the case of corruption. As always, he criticized the fact that former Prime Minister José Sócrates, who has visited Lula in Brazil on several occasions, can avoid being tried. “It will be one of the blackest moments of justice,” he said.
Among the evocations of April 25, 1974, when the coup allowed to end the colonial wars and bury a dictatorship of 48 years, the political messages that each one wanted to send slipped through. If the president of the Assembly, Augusto Santos Silva, recommended respect for political cycles “without abuse”, the president of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, once again left it understood about the possibility of accelerating the end of the legislature in a anticipated, an idea that has been installed in his speech due to the intense wear and tear of the Government of António Costa in just one year. “In a democracy there is always the possibility of creating different paths”, he highlighted.
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