Marcelo addresses protesters and highlights Portugal’s positions at the UN in defense of Palestine
The President of the Republic addressed dozens of young protesters for the Palestinian cause, highlighting to them the Portuguese positions for the ceasefire in Gaza and the entry of the Palestinian State as a full member of the United Nations.
This episode happened when Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was arriving at the Courtyard of the University of Coimbra, where the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Luís de Camões were starting, and saw dozens of pro-Palestine protesters next to the entrance to the Faculty of Letters.
Contrary to what had happened moments before with the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, the head of state went to meet them.
For five minutes, he began by listening to one of the organizers of the demonstration demand Portugal’s immediate diplomatic recognition of the Palestinian State and the “end of the University of Coimbra’s complicity” with the State of Israel and the “massacre ” of the Palestinian people.
After listening to this message, the President of the Republic then asked to borrow the microphone from the protesters and told them “two things” in less than a minute.
“Portugal, for the first time, voted a month and a half ago in favor of Palestine’s entry as a full member of the United Nations. Until then, it only had the position of being an associative member” , he said.
Afterwards, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa highlighted that “Portugal had just signed, among other declarations, one in favor of the ceasefire”.
“I had already taken a position and now advocates that a resolution signed by numerous countries on several continents be taken to the United Nations”, he stated. One of the protesters took up the microphone again and thanked the attention given to them by the President of the Republic.
In addition to the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic, present at the opening ceremony of the celebrations of the centenary of the birth of Luís de Camões were the President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, several members of the Government, including the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel, the general secretary of the PS, Pedro Nuno Santos, and the parliamentary leader of the CDS-PP, Paulo Núncio, who arrived a little late, after the head of state had visited the Joanina Library.
At the entrance to the University Courtyard, next to Porta Férrea, Pedro Nuno Santos crossed paths with Paulo Rangel and made a gesture with his fist, in an allusion to the victory of the PS and the defeat of the AD ( Democratic Alliance) in Sunday’s European elections.
Still in relation to the protesters who crossed paths with the President of the Republic today, they are students who have been camped next to the Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra (FLUC) since May 21, demanding an “end to the genocide ongoing in occupied Palestine”.
In a press release sent to the Lusa agency at the end of May, the protesters demanded that the University of Coimbra (UC) take a “position for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire throughout the occupied Palestinian territory”, the raising of the flag of Palestine in the institution’s tower and the end of all programs, agreements and protocols with Israeli companies, institutions and universities, “as well as the refusal of any funding in academic curriculum by the State of Israel”.
After taking this position, the “Students of Coimbra for Palestine” movement accused the UC of increasing the number of private security guards in the surrounding area, preventing students from accessing university space and “intimidation and harassment” by security guards, says another statement published at the beginning of June.
