SDP President Luis Montenegro defended this Saturday in Figueira da Foz that the judiciary does not serve to limit the rights, freedoms and guarantees of citizens.
“The judiciary also does not serve to infringe on the rights, freedoms and guarantees of citizens and the normal functioning of a democratic rule of law, on which a just and free society is built,” said Luis Montenegro during a speech at the celebration of Independence Day. 49th anniversary of the Social Democratic Youth (DSD).
“And I want to reiterate here: we in the SDP will not allow ourselves to be conditioned, and we will not allow anyone to limit our freedom of action, our strategies,” the social democratic leader warned.
Allusion to the case of searches carried out on Thursday at party premises and at the home of employees and former SDP chairman Rui Rio was made minutes earlier by the former prime minister and current chairman of the Chamber of Deputies. Figueira da Foz, Pedro Santana López, who also appeared as a guest at the JSD party.
Santana López stressed that in Portugal “things are not going well” and warned that rights, freedoms and guarantees “are not respected”.
According to the mayor, “what is happening these days” makes you think about two words: freedom and decency.
“The word integrity is very broad. And if institutions do not behave decently in a democratic rule of law, rights, freedoms and guarantees begin to be at risk,” he said.
On the other hand, Santana Lopez recalled that in the past, “people were arrested and their families weren’t exposed all their lives.”
“Not even our own. They detained a person, either for more serious or less serious crimes, they interrogated, but they did not take a person all his life and put everything on display for all authorities. There are limits that the state needs to think about, and this week we witnessed this,” said the mayor of Figueira da Foz.
Although, without revealing who he had in mind, Santana López emphasized that “sometimes it seems that there are revolutionaries who want to question the rules and functioning of a democratic rule of law state.”
Addressing Luis Montenegro, he noted that whoever is the leader of the opposition “has a Herculean task.”
“Preparing an alternative [ao governo] but, at the same time, coming together to ensure that the democratic rule of law is stronger than the abuses that want to inflict on it,” said Santana Lopez.