Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa warns that “security and public order are democratic values whose preservation is important to guarantee, in particular through the role of security forces”. This is the first “essential point” that the President of the Republic wants to highlight in a note about “the events” of the last 48 hours around Lisbon.
Numa use published this Wednesday on the Presidency’s website, Marcelo informs that “he has been closely following, in contact with the Government and the Presidents of the Municipal Chambers of Amadora and Oeiras” the riots and contempt. And considers it necessary to remember “three points that he considers essential”.
The first is that security forces must preserve and guarantee “public security and order”. The second is that “this guarantee must respect the principles of the Democratic Rule of Law, namely the Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees of citizens, as well as ensuring compliance with the respective Duties”.
Finally, Marcelo recognizes that there are problems in Portuguese society, but they cannot be resolved with violence. “Our society, despite the social, economic, cultural problems and inequalities that still permeate it, is a generally peaceful societyand that is how it wants to continue to be, without instability and, much less, violence”, writes the President.
After the release of the note, the President of the Republic went live on several television channels asking for an escalation of violence to be avoided. Speaking to SIC, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa expressed “the certainty that the majority of the population is aware that peaceful solutions are always preferable to violent confrontations”, warning that “violence is an escalation”.
“My concern is this: that a climate of increased violence, verbal, in what is said, in the initiatives that are taken, and this has a huge cost for the overwhelming majority of Portuguese people, and in this case for the overwhelming majority of those who live here in this area”, he said. The head of state added that “it is clear that there are more critical situations and more critical moments, what it’s about is facing them by finding solutions, and encouraging violence, particularly physical violence, is never a solution” and insisted that “the temptation of violence should be resisted”.
The President of the Republic also spoke to RTP and TVI/CNN Portugal, repeating this appeal.
Use: news updated at 2:40 pm with PR statements on television
