Marcelo highlights freedom of expression and refuses to comment on Chega’s initiative – Politics

The President of the Republic refused this Wednesday to comment on the initiative announced by Chega against him for statements he made, but highlighted that in democracy there is freedom of expression, including for holders of sovereign bodies.

“I’m not talking about that, beyond what I’ve already said, which is to say that we live in democracy”, said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in response to journalists, at the Centro Cultural de Belém, in Lisbon.

“And democracy has the difference in relation to dictatorship which is the freedom of expression of thought, the freedom to think. The freedom of everyone to think, to agree, to disagree, whether they hold political positions or not”, he added.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stressed that just as “ordinary citizens have this freedom”, “the holders of sovereign bodies also have this freedom” — as is his case.

Afterwards, the head of state refused to answer whether he considers himself defamed by Chega’s president, André Ventura, who has repeatedly accused him of “betrayal of the country” for his statements about possible reparations for crimes committed and assets plundered from the former Portuguese colonies.

“I’m not going to comment on that, because precisely, firstly, we are in an electoral period, secondly, we are in democracy and freedom is possible”, he retorted.

When asked whether he could move forward with any action against Chega or in particular against André Ventura, the President of the Republic said he had “nothing more to say” on this matter other than what he has already said.

On Tuesday, the president of Chega announced that he will even move forward with an initiative in the Assembly of the Republic to accuse the President of the Republic of “treason against the country”, which, however, has not yet been delivered.

According to the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Republic, faced with a proposal to “indict the President of the Republic”, which must be signed by a fifth of the deputies, a special parliamentary committee is set up to prepare a report. Then, within 48 hours, a plenary meeting is held to vote on the initiative, which requires a two-thirds majority to be approved.

Under article 308 of the Penal Code, the crime of treason against the country is committed by “anyone who, through usurpation or abuse of sovereign functions: a) attempts to separate the mother country or hand it over to a foreign country or submit all or part of Portuguese territory to foreign sovereignty, or b) offends or endangers the independence of the country”.

Article 328 of the Penal Code establishes that “insulting or defaming the President of the Republic” constitutes a crime of insulting the honor of the President of the Republic and “is punished with a prison sentence of up to 3 years or a fine”, and when ” insult or defamation is made through words spoken publicly”, the penalty will be increased to “from 6 months to 3 years or with a fine of not less than 60 days”.

In the same article, it is stated that “criminal proceedings cease if the President of the Republic expressly declares that he withdraws from them”. The statements by the President of the Republic in question, about the colonial period, made in a meeting with foreign media outlets, on April 23, are as follows: “We are responsible for what we did there, and we continue. It is not apologizing and it passed, we became friends, no. What we did there, in the massacres, had costs. It is still possible to pay the costs today, these are assets that were plundered and were not returned. proved that they were plundered. So let’s see how we can make amends for that”.