Another protest halted Parliament proceedings on Thursday (November 7) when a rowdy group of citizens called for 1% of budget funds to be allocated for culture.
An unhappy secretary of state for culture saw his speech interrupted by protesters braying “1% for culture!” and “resign!”.
As Jorge Barreto Xavier tried to answer a question posed by a PCP deputy, attention quickly turned to the protesters who had to be escorted out of Parliament chambers by police.
The words that followed would have likely led to more heated reactions, as the secretary of state said: “No government, since the 25th of April (1974), has managed to increase funding for culture and it isn’t now, in the current economic context, that this will be possible.”
However, in an attempt to calm the situation, Xavier said he would do everything in his power to protect civil servants working in culture departments.
Jorge Barreto Xavier was addressing Parliament in a joint session with the commission for education, science and culture and the commission for budget, finance and public administration.
This is the second case of anti-government protesters storming parliamentary galleries this month. Last week police had to forcibly evict a group who shouted out “killers, killers” when deputy prime minister Paulo Portas addressed the audience during a session to approve the controversial draft state budget for 2014.
