“Being free represents boldness and has a price”

More than sixty people gathered today, next to Rotunda Sá Carneiro, in Funchal, to participate in the “Liberdade é Caminho” initiative, promoted by an “informal group of citizens” and which aimed to exalt the values ​​of the 25th of April.

The movement’s spokesperson, António Trindade, who was recently dismissed from his duties as deputy at the Regional Secretariat for Agriculture and Environment, said that, in Madeira, “the values ​​of April” still have a long way to go, “from the point of view of freedom of opinion, to think differently and respect for individuality”.

Asked whether people in Madeira can express themselves freely without suffering consequences, António Trindade replied that “that is the desire”, but “it does not always happen”. “And that’s precisely why we’re here: to give a voice and a face to those who can’t do it. That is our objective”, he highlighted, at the time of the meeting, scheduled for 6pm.

António Trindade considered that the case for his dismissal “is outdated” and did not want to relate his departure with today’s demonstration, also avoiding answering whether if he had not been exonerated, the concentration would still have been promoted.

“This issue is not an individual issue, it is not a matter of whether people have that role or not, but rather whether we, in a certain way, contribute as a society to make things better”, he mentioned.

However, he added that “it will also be up to political parties to understand how some signals given to society, from the point of view of values, attitudes, also compromise public opinion about political parties”.

Saying that the group brought together “some individuals from different political parties”, António Trindade also added that, “often, being free represents boldness and has a price”.

The spokesperson finally said that new actions by the movement could be repeated.

“This act is a path. We verified that this appeal worked. People are here convinced. And obviously there could be other initiatives, resulting from these, in order to bring citizens closer to participating in active citizenship”, he admitted.