In the end, he asked young people not to let themselves become complacent, feeling like someone who entered the room “at 76 years old” and leaves “25 years younger”.
“Every time I have the opportunity to teach a class, I gain in age and physical shape. I don’t know if that’s a good idea for anyone who thinks I should be more wasted or older,” she added.
“In any case, today you have an answer that you don’t necessarily like: among young people I feel even younger”, he concluded, after a week in which he has been the target of criticism and comments, following several statements made at a dinner with foreign journalists. , in Lisbon.
Today, Marcelo refused to comment on current Portuguese political issues, as he was abroad, where he has insisted on fraternal relations with former colonies.
In today’s master class, the head of state previewed the celebration of 50 years of independence for Portuguese-speaking countries, in 2025, as an opportunity to keep this year’s joint celebration of the 25th of April alive.
“There is a great occasion next year: independence will be celebrated”, so the celebrations are a “good idea”, he said, promising to promote the idea among other heads of state.
Marcelo was responding to one of the participants, a Guinean, whose father was arrested by PIDE, the political police of the colonial dictatorship, who questioned whether the 25th of April could not become a joint celebration with the former colonies, instead of these countries being invited for an event, on that date, in Portugal.
The Portuguese President said that the celebration of 50 years in Portugal was in this sense and that it is up to each society to promote the debate on the “past, present and future of all these societies”.
With his Cape Verdean counterpart, José Maria Neves, in the front row, Marcelo asked the hundreds of students in the audience to be “demanding, critical and free” to build a democracy in times of crisis — the theme of the master class -, reiterating that an imperfect and unfinished democracy is always preferable to a dictatorship, but this time saying it in front of a large audience, at Uni-CV.
“I have unlimited hope in you, young Cape Verdeans”, he said, highlighting the cultural dynamic, because, when this exists, the “civic dynamic erupts naturally”, he said.
The class was the last moment of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s visit to Cape Verde, centered on the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the release of the Tarrafal prisoners.
