The answer to the debate raised by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is no. The Government of Luís Montenegro rejects the possibility of reparation to the States and peoples affected by Portugal’s colonial past.
“There was and is not any process or program of specific actions for this purpose.”
In a statement from the Ministry of the Presidency, the Government states that its line of action is the same as that which previous governments have followed.
“Regarding the issue of reparation to these States and their people for the colonial past of the Portuguese State, it is important to emphasize that the current Government is guided by the same line as previous Governments”
can be read in the statement sent to
Renaissance.
The Government also emphasizes that relations with the States that were former colonies of Portugal are excellent.
“The relations of the Portuguese people with all the people of the States that were former colonies of Portugal are truly excellent, based on mutual respect and the sharing of common history. The same can be said about State-to-State institutional relations, as the celebrations of the fifty years of April 25, 1974 clearly prove.”
The Government’s statement comes after the criticism heard at the formal session on the 25th of April and a few hours after Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said again “Portugal must embrace its History, in its good and bad”.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa highlighted this afternoon that “there are no homogeneous solutions, solutions have to be found according to the circumstances”. However, Portugal cannot “put this under the carpet or in a drawer.
The Government’s one-page note reminds us that the State, through the Government or the President of the Republic, has maintained “cooperation programs for the recognition of historical truth with impartiality and impartiality”.
The Government gives as an example its apology for the tragic Wyriamu massacre. In cultural and historical cooperation, the Government recalls that the Portuguese State financed “in Angola, the Museum of the Struggle for National Liberation; in Cape Verde, the museumization of the Tarrafal concentration camp; in Mozambique, the recovery of the slave ramp on the Island of Mozambique”.
