The President of the Republic reminds in Rome that “democracy is never finished, exhausted or perfect”

The President of the Republic opened the exhibition in Rome this Wednesday, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of April 25, accompanied by his Italian counterpart and took the opportunity to recall that democracy is “never finished, exhausted or perfect.”

In a conversation with Portuguese journalists after the opening and visit of the exhibition in the company of Sergio Mattarella, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa refused to comment on the proposal put forward today by the President of the Assembly of the Republic to hold a vote of refusal to participate in the event of insult or insult, for the reluctance to “transcend the boundaries of the separation of powers.”

Asked how, 50 years after the Carnation Revolution, he is witnessing this new debate, which arose from an incident last Friday in the plenary session when Chegi President Andre Ventura mentioned the ability of the Turks to work, Marcelo emphasized that the discussion is natural because “this is democracy “

“Democracy is characterized by the emergence of new questions, new problems. Democracy is never finished, exhausted or perfect. And in those 50 years, we found that there were problems in the 1980s that didn’t exist in the 1980s. 70, in [década] from 90 [problemas] that in the 80s there were no doubts, questions, new discussions, new economic, social and political realities,” he noted.

“And a democracy is more democratic the more it is able to adapt to change,” added Marcelo Rebelo de Souza, who arrived in Rome this afternoon for the opening of the photo exhibition “The Dawn I Waited for” in Rome. the cultural complex of Mattatoio, which features the work of photographers such as Sebastian Salgado, Guy le Querrec and Alfredo Cunha.

In a short speech, Marcelo, who thanked his “dear friend” Mattarella for the “very symbolic” presence, drew a parallel between the two “25th of April”, which are celebrated in both countries, since in Italy it also falls on this day. , but dates back to 1945, marking the liberation from Nazi occupation and fascism.

“For Italy, April 25 was liberation after fascism, after the Second World War. It was a very long period in which many thousands of people died and which partially destroyed the economy, society and even Italian families,” he began with a lament.

“In Portugal it was the end of a dictatorship that also lasted 48 years and which in its final part was closely connected with the war. So connected that they were “April captains” who knew the experience of the war. , who understood that at a certain point it was important to act to change the regime and open the way to freedom and democracy.

The President of the Republic noted that “although there is a big difference in decades – in one case, years [19]40, in other years [19]70″, it is not only about the “coincidence of April 25”, since there is a parallelism between both countries, leaving “situations of dictatorship and war, to situations of peace, freedom and democracy”.

After Rome, Marcelo Rebelo de Souza heads to Florence, where on Thursday he will take part in the State of the Union conference organized by the European University Institute of Florence, after already being one of the main invited speakers for the 2018 edition.

This time, the President of the Republic will take part in a “high-level conversation” with the President of Greece, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, dedicated to the theme “A New Era: Shaping the Future through European Values.”