The 25th of April is ours – an appeal to the President of the Republic and the Government
The 25th of April is an event that is part of the core of the Portuguese nation, so, however much sympathies it generates outside it, only the Portuguese can feel what it represented and represents.
The Assembly of the Republic (AR) is the highest representative body of the Portuguese people, so it is natural that the high point of the celebration of a date as important as the 25th of April (there are others) takes place within the scope of this sovereign body, with the participation of deputies and intellectually and/or politically qualified fellow citizens to talk about the event that took place 49 years ago. Associating a foreigner, no matter how senior the functions he performs in his country, to the celebration of the date in question in the AR, seems to me to be a decision devoid of the most basic common sense.
Everyone has already understood that I am talking about the possible presence of the President of the Brazilian Republic in the AR, on the 25th of April, where he will speak. Nothing moves me against Lula da Silva, on the contrary, I was pleased with the fact that he defeated Bolsonaro in the elections for the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil, however, I hope that Professor Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and the Government prevent that one day that should being of serenity, regardless of what the representatives of the Parties with seats in the AR may think about it, turns into a day of noises of cheap politics, which means not scheduling the presence of the Brazilian President in that sovereign body on the date in question. When you make a mistake, it costs nothing to go back.
Elder Fernandes, Lisbon
Is Europe really saved?
I hope I take it for granted that Europe, in its most recent disgrace, now in Ukrainian lands, has finally reached eternal salvation. From who? For Russians and autocrats in general, who else? How wonderful it would be, for all the inhabitants of this “damned” region that not even a century of consecutive peace is able to live, that, with the “precious” help of two salvific agents like Biden and Zelensky, duly supported by Von der Leyen and Stoltenberg , having definitely remitted all their sins.
But no, I don’t believe in so much happiness, noting the persistent shadows of characters like Orbán or Duda, who hover among a few others in the penumbra, waiting for the “final assault”, like Le Pen. Also because, ultimately, what Europe really needs is to save itself from itself. And with the leaders we have out there, very concerned with their personal careers, I don’t see much of a way.
José A. Rodrigues, Vila Nova de Gaia
old lace
It is incomprehensible the government’s attitude when decreeing that those who own vacant properties have to recover them and find tenants for them. So what about public buildings that are abandoned because they are not recovered and put on the market? I am remembering the building of the former Ministry of Education, in Campo Mártires da Pátria (formerly Campo de Santana), where I was an employee in the 60s, which has been vacant for many years and deteriorating full of graffiti. And this is just an example because, according to what I read in the newspapers, there are hundreds of identical cases. Perhaps the most striking thing is that they abandoned their buildings and settled in rented buildings, as it is said.
As far as the freezing of existing or former rents is concerned, that is the biggest joke of the century. How can one understand that a landlord receives a rent that is not even enough to pay the property tax (not to mention other charges) while, eventually, his tenants have top-of-the-range cars and go on vacation to the Caribbean? My sister has two tenants in Coimbra, in T2 apartments, who pay: 15 euros one, and the other 20 euros a month! These rents, which are over 60 years old, come from the Salazar era and continue because the increases that are currently possible are only enough to buy peanuts! Paternalism continues.
More words for what?
Horace Knight