IL MP says she was insulted and physically intimidated at the April 25 parade on Avenida da Liberdade

IL MP Patricia Gilvase complained this Friday that she was insulted and physically intimidated during the April 25 parade on Avenida da Liberdade, considering it an “attack on freedom of expression”, but said she would not file a complaint.

Patricia Gilvaz, who led the Liberal Initiative (IL) procession with a megaphone in hand, told Lusa that the incident took place in the Marques de Pombal area of ​​Lisbon while they were singing several songs, one of which was “Always the 25th of April.” , fascism never again, April 25 always, communism never again.”

“Someone felt very awkward, came up, grabbed me by the arm, pulled me, pushed me and started shouting that he was a communist, that he fought for our rights, and he started insulting me, he started insulting everyone who was singing there. freedom, forgetting that April was called to sing precisely against all ideologies of a totalitarian nature,” he said.

The man was later taken away by the man accompanying him, as well as IS fighters, when “they began to realize what was happening and began to pull and push more aggressively,” the deputy said.

When asked if she planned to file a complaint, Patricia Gilvaz replied: “I don’t know you anywhere, I don’t know your name.”

“So I am not going to file a complaint against a stranger whose identity I cannot identify, but I regret that in the 21st century, 50 years after the achievement of freedom, there are still situations like this that try to harass and commit a real attack on freedom of expression.” , he emphasized.

The deputy emphasized that she previously led the “IL” march with a megaphone in her hand, and the party also heard insults, but this year she felt “greater aggressiveness.”

“It has never happened to us that they have gone so far as to challenge us physically, and this year there has really been such an escalation of relations,” he said, believing that what happened to him yesterday was “a real attack on freedom of expression,” but saying he didn’t do it would be scary.

“We will never remain silent in defense of freedom, ever,” he said.

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“They can insult us and threaten us as always (and yesterday they did it again). They may try to prevent us from participating, as they have already done. They don’t know us. We do not allow ourselves to be intimidated,” he said, adding that “freedom does not come from the left, from those who appropriate the party, trying to exclude those who think differently.”

“Freedom belongs to everyone, and we will continue to say this every day, everywhere, on the street, without accepting any conventions. We don’t sit on the couch,” he says.

In this publication, Rui Rocha refers to the statements made by the Secretary General of the PS at the parade, in which he stated that the crowd filling Avenida da Liberdade was a sign that “the Portuguese people want the left to be in power” to remember that There were legislative elections this month.

“This is a clear sign of revanchism, intolerance and disrespect for the voices of the Portuguese that were heard just a few weeks ago,” the document says.

This year, IL returned to participate in the traditional commemorative parade on April 25 on Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon, similar to what it did in 2023, after two consecutive years during which it promoted its own initiative.

Since its inception, IL has taken part in these folk celebrations in 2018 and 2019, a parade that did not take place in 2020 due to the pandemic. In the next two years, the Liberals staged their own parade after disagreements with the commission promoting the April 25 parade.