Marcelo guarantees that “no one wants to make jokes about the freedoms acquired” from April 25th.

On Tuesday, the President of the Republic stressed the importance of always remembering April 25, even if there are those who want to “question their ideals”, and assured that “no one wants to joke about the freedoms acquired.” .

“The Portugal of April was forever different from the Portugal that preceded it, there is no return, there is no return when you know freedom and enjoy freedom. There is no going back when you have the freedom to express your thoughts. Nobody wants to silence the freedoms they have acquired,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Souza.

At the Congress Center of Estoril, marking the 50th anniversary of the Cascais meeting, the head of state said that “there may be ups and downs and obvious partial attacks on economic or social freedoms due to what happens outside or what happens inside, but the ideal of April will never doesn’t die.”

“There is no one who dares to say that one should be more unequal than equal, even if what they propose objectively encourages more inequality than equality, either because it has to be so or because it is part of the way of thinking.” , – he is thoughtful.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa praised the “generosity of democracy, saying that “it includes anti-liberals, anti-democrats and anti-egalitarians, so as not to run the risk of becoming a dictatorship.’

The head of state stressed the importance of always remembering April 25, “even if it seems that from time to time there are those who want to question their ideals.”

“April always means: always remember the ideals that led to April 25, 1974. (…) Even if they are difficult to achieve, even if for many it does not correspond to these ideals, even if it seems so, Everyone from time to time there are those who even want to deny the ideals, replace them, question the ideals,” he said .

At the ceremony, which was attended by the Ministers of Defense and Culture Helena Carreiras and Pedro Adan e Silva respectively, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa left a guarantee:

“As long as there are millions of free and equal democrats in our country, there will always be April!”

The President of the Republic emphasized the “generosity” of the April military, considering that the task was successful because everyone managed to become a “collective movement” and not a “sum of captains.”

Recalling the meeting at which the captains decided to overthrow the Portuguese dictatorship through a coup d’etat, the president of the April 25 Association, also the captain of the Abril, Vasco Lourenço, emphasized the “fundamental importance of using the freedom gained in April.” determine the future.”

Carlos Carreiras, President of the Cascais City Council, stated that “all alternatives to democracy are harmful” and believes that “democracy was not a work that ended on April 25, 1974”, describing it as “a dynamic requiring constant improvement” and “the common good of all citizens.”

At a meeting held 50 years ago on the ground floor of no. 45 Rua Visconde Luz, in Cascais, in the studio of the architect Braula Reis, the document “Movement, Armed Forces and Nation”, the first draft of the captains’ policy, was presented, and a coup d’état was considered an option irreversible.

At the meeting, attended by about 200 officers, the movement’s intention to democratize the country and end the war became clear, and the Captains’ Movement became the Armed Forces Movement (AFM), with the Captains deciding to delegate to Melo Antunes the responsibility of chairing and coordinating the committee to prepare the Program.

At this meeting a new vote was held on the future leaders of the Movement, which was again won by Francisco da Costa Gomes, then Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.