The debate on reparations in Portugal “is mainly a product of political opportunism” | Interview

After last year assuming that Portugal should apologize for its role in colonialism, and without ever having done so formally, the President of the Republic has now come to talk about paying compensation to former colonies for the damage caused by slavery and colonialism . Very different from the statements he made in 2017, on the island of Gorée (Senegal), when he chose to talk about the abolition of slavery in that country, in the 18th century, these statements are for many “irresponsible” or, at best, “late” . We asked historian Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo, who has written a lot about colonialism, to analyze the words of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. This teacher at the University of Coimbra believes that to go further in this debate in Portugal, “there is a lack of historical research, legal imagination and political determination”.