Church/Portugal: Member of the National Justice and Peace Commission calls for the eradication of poverty in the text of the Constitution

Inequalities and poverty condition the freedom of millions of people, 50 years after the 25th of April, warns Maria d’Oliveira Martins

Lisbon, April 29, 2024 (Ecclesia) – University professor Maria d’Oliveira Martins, member of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (CNJP), considers that social inequalities and poverty condition the freedom of millions of people in Portugal, 50 years after April 25th.

“Inequalities are, even today, conditions of freedom, conditions of the future, conditions of the possibilities of a dignified life, and these inequalities often trap people in cycles of poverty”, says the professor of Public Finance and Constitutional Law at the Catholic University Portuguese, in an interview with ECCLESIA Agency.

The member of the CNJP understands that the eradication of poverty must be assumed as a “national priority”, advocating a constitutional reform, in this sense.

“It should be among the fundamental tasks of the Portuguese State in the Constitution”, he states.

The person responsible believes that it is “very important” to revisit the theme of freedom, 50 years after the 1974 revolution.

“Freedom is not a given”, warns the interviewee, calling for the preservation of the “very important achievements” of democracy.

Maria d’Oliveira Martins emphasizes that extreme poverty is linked to “an absence of freedom”.

“From the moment we lack essential goods, we are unable to exercise the autonomy and freedom that are inherent to human beings”, he states.

Poverty often places people in sub-human conditions, in conditions of exploitation, of subjection to violence”.

The university professor regrets that “some prejudice” persists regarding the issue of poverty, highlighting that it has “multiple factors”.

“This is the first myth that must be attacked: poverty is not a character flaw, it is a circumstance in which people find themselves”, he maintains.

The interviewee on the ECCLESIA Program, broadcast today on RTP2, regrets the lack of a “broad commitment, a regime commitment from the various parties”, in Portugal, regarding the eradication of poverty,

“Prejudices often undermine the debate and prevent it from going further”, he warns, highlighting the “difficulty of hearing and listening to others” in political life.

See, for example, the fear that was generated in relation to those who come from outside, foreigners. There are those who think that they are coming to take our jobs, they are just coming to take advantage of our social security systems, when the data shows us that this is not the reality”.

On the 50th anniversary of democracy in Portugal, the CNJP published a note, in which it warned of the persistence of “phenomena of lack of freedom” and the increase in intolerance.

Maria d’Oliveira Martins states that democracy requires “reconciliation of all views in society”.

“There should not be a preponderant vision or group that imposes its ideas on others. Everyone must, in a climate of social friendship, of mutual choice, seek a synthesis, deep down, of all interests”, he points out.

PR/OC

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