Head of State Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said on Tuesday that he hopes Portugal will have a female president of the republic and acknowledged that Ana Gomes, his former rival in the 2021 presidential election, could be the first.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke in English at the closing session of the Seminar on Women in Diplomacy and Globalization, at the Institute of Political Studies of the Catholic University of Portugal in Lisbon, in a speech in which he considered that there was much more to be done. misogyny in Portugal.
“In almost 49 years of democracy in Portugal, we have never had a woman president,” he said.
“We all hope that this will change soon,” he said.
In this regard, the President of the Republic mentioned that Portugal was “one of the few European countries where there are queens, it was very rare in Europe and some of them were really exceptional.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa emphasized that since April 25, 1974, Portugal had “only one foreign minister, Teresa Gouveia, in 2003, 2004 only one” and expressed regret that women make up only “about a third” of the current Portuguese diplomatic corps. .
“Even more disturbing, and this is the bad news of last year, the latest numbers of candidates selected for diplomatic careers show a declining presence of women,” he noted, asking “why were so few women selected?”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa urged students and diplomats to “keep up the progress in terms of gender equality” and chose the fight for the rights and active role of women in Portugal as “an imperative not only for political power but also for civil society.”
“We in Portugal are still very, very misogynist in many cases,” he said, defending that “barriers need to be broken down” and “a lot of work needs to be done” on this issue.
This seminar took place on the eve of International Women’s Day, which is celebrated on 8 March.
Ana Gómez, socialist activist, former ambassador to Jakarta, was a candidate in the 2021 presidential election without the support of the PS, in which Marcelo Rebelo de Souza was re-elected President of the Republic.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa received 60.67% of the vote in this election. Ana Gomes, who received only a welcome from her party for her candidacy, came in second with 12.96%.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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