The PCP considered this Thursday that the Portuguese President’s decision to award his Ukrainian counterpart with the Order of Freedom is an “affront to democrats” because Volodymyr Zelensky “personifies a xenophobic, bellicose and anti-democratic power”.
In a note sent to the newsrooms, the PCP considered that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s decision to award Zelensky with the Great Collar of the Order of Freedom “constitutes an affront to the democrats and a decision contrary to the construction of a path of peace”.
The communists criticize this decoration “on the eve of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the April Liberating Revolution”, accusing the Ukrainian President of personifying “a xenophobic, bellicose and anti-democratic power, surrounded and supported by forces of a fascist and Nazi nature”.
The decoration, for the PCP, “can only be received with indignation by all those who know the value of the struggle for freedom that the Portuguese people waged over decades against the fascist regime”.
On Wednesday, in a note posted on the Presidency’s website, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced the decoration of the President of Ukraine, admitting that he anticipated the announcement following a “parliamentary initiative on this matter”.
“The President of the Republic intended to announce on the 24th of this month, the date on which Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is completed one year, the decoration of President Zelensky. Taking into account the parliamentary initiative on this matter, he announces that he has decided award the President of Ukraine the Grand Collar of the Order of Freedom”, read the note.
PÚBLICO had advanced that the PAN intended to mark the first year of the war with a proposal to award Zelensky, which led the Portuguese head of state to anticipate the announcement.