Portugal: 48th anniversary celebrations of 25 Abril

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Portugal: 48th anniversary celebrations of 25 Abril

4:08 CAT | 25 Apr 2022

Photo: Lusa

The 48th anniversary of April 25 will be marked this morning in the Portuguese parliament with a formal sitting no longer restricted due to Covid-19 and in the afternoon the parliament will open its doors to the public.

The solemn session commemorating 25 April 1974, starting at 10am, includes speeches by deputies of the eight parties with parliamentary seats, in increasing order of representation, Livre, PAN, BE, PCP, Liberal Initiative, Chega, PSD and PS, the speaker of parliament, Augusto Santos Silva, and the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

For the first time since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the carnation revolution will be commemorated without a limited number of people present and also without the compulsory wearing of masks in parliament – a rule that ceased to apply on Friday – unlike the two previous years, when a state of emergency was in force on this historic date.

April 25 is 48 years old at a time of war in Ukraine, where the invasion by Russia has lasted for two months, and the day after liberal centrist Emmanuel Macron was re-elected as president of France in the second round of the French presidential election against far-right Marine Le Pen.

Following the 30 January elections, the Portuguese parliament has been reconfigured and now has an absolute majority of PS deputies, followed by the PSD and the third political force, Chega, a party that presented itself in the legislative elections with the slogan “For a new democratic regime: God, homeland, family and work”, recovering slogans from the Salazar dictatorship era.

Today, from 3pm, the parliament building will be open to the public, as well as the prime minister’s official residence, in São Bento, from 2.30pm, with access between the two places, where visitors may enter until 6pm.

At the same time, the traditional parade along Avenida da Liberdade, in Lisbon, will be taking place, promoted by over 40 civil society organizations, parties and trade unions, including the April 25 Association, PCP, PS, BE, PEV, CGTP and UGT and respective youth organisations and also the parties Livre and Movimento Alternativo Socialista (MAS).

The commission promoting this parade, scheduled for 15:00, asked the media to broadcast at 18:00 the song which is the symbol of the 25th of April “Grândola, Vila Morena” followed by the national anthem and to all those who can to sing at the windows and balconies these two songs, as in the two previous years of the pandemic.

The Liberal Initiative has again called its own parade for 14:00, from the Duque de Saldanha Square, towards Avenida da Liberdade, which it announced will be joined by the Association of Ukrainians in Portugal. This party claims that in 2021 an attempt was made to prevent its participation in these street celebrations.

In the gardens of São Bento Palace, the official residence of the prime minister, April 25 will be celebrated with a cultural programme for various ages, which includes dance, music and an exhibition of posters of the revolution, and ends with a concert by Dino d’Santiago.

At São Bento Palace, the speaker of parliament, Augusto Santos Silva, will be present to welcome the public from 3pm and invite everyone to visit the “house of democracy”.

The President of the Republic will travel to Spain this afternoon to take part in the ceremony to deposit the legacy of José Saramago, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998, in the Caja de las Letras of the Cervantes Institute in Madrid.

A year ago, at the commemorative session of the 47th anniversary of the 25th of April at the Portuguese parliament, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa focused his speech on the Portuguese colonial past and asked to look at history without fear or complexes, seeking to unite and fight intolerances, with the notion that there are different experiences and perspectives regarding that period.

Source: Lusa