Marcelo speaks to several television stations
Portugal’s president spoke live to several television channels today, calling for any escalation of violence in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area to be avoided and for peaceful solutions to be sought.
Speaking to SIC, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa expressed “the certainty that the majority of the general public is aware that peaceful solutions are always preferable to violent confrontations“, warning that “violence is an escalation”.
“My concern is this: that a climate of escalating violence is being created or fostered or fed, verbally, in what is said, in the initiatives that are taken, and this has an enormous cost for the overwhelming majority of Portuguese, and in this case for the overwhelming majority of those who live here in this area.”
The head of state added that “it’s clear that there are more critical situations and more critical moments, what we have to do is deal with them by finding solutions, and it is never a solution to encourage violence, particularly physical violence”, insisting that “the temptation to violence must be resisted”.
The president also spoke to RTP and TVI/CNN Portugal, repeating his appeal, after having released a written note about the disturbances, following the death of 43-year-old Odair Moniz, shot by a PSP police officer in the early hours of Monday morning, in the Cova da Moura neighborhood, in Amadora.
In this written note, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that he was closely following the events in greater Lisbon, in contact with the government and mayors, and argued for the importance of security and public order, while respecting the principles of the democratic rule of law.
In the same message, he considered that Portuguese society, “despite the social, economic and cultural problems and inequalities that still plague it, is a generally peaceful society, and wants to continue to be so, without instability and, much less, violence”.
The president did not comment directly on the case of Odair Moniz’s death in the note he released, nor in his statements to television channels.
Speaking to RTP, the head of state began by saying that “there is no democracy without security and public order and, therefore, without the role of the security forces – they are not the only ones, but they are fundamental”, and that “they must always act with respect for the principles of the democratic rule of law”.
He then repeated his call for “the problems that need to be solved not to be solved through instability or a climate of violence”, adding: “Problems that we know exist, injustices and inequalities that exist”.
“The appeal is for everyone, that is, namely for the vast majority of citizens, in a society that is peaceful, that has many inequalities, in fact, and has many injustices, and many economic, social and financial and cultural problems, namely in the metropolitan areas.”
As previous stories have stressed, investigations are ongoing into the shooting of Odair Moniz, and the police officer involved has already been relieved of his weapon and ‘constituted’ an official suspect.
Source material: LUSA
