“We are waiting for this notification very calmly. We think this is not the issue. If we want to talk about Palestine, let’s talk about the suffering of the Palestinian people and the greatness of the solidarity movements,” said Mariana Mortágua, speaking to journalists in Porto during a street event dedicated to the municipal elections happening this Sunday.
The leader was questioned about whether she had received the notification and the costs of the return trip to Portugal after being detained in Israel with actress Sofia Aparício and activists Miguel Duarte and Diogo Chaves, stating that she has been more focused on the election campaign.
“I’ve been campaigning, and just as I had difficulty reading the State Budget because the prime minister and the Government decided to present it earlier to avoid the campaign being about the prime minister’s poorly explained businesses, I’ve also had difficulty checking every second for notifications from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” she responded.
Mariana Mortágua renewed her criticism of the Government for, as the coordinator of the Left Bloc said, deeming it “more important to inform the press of what they would do than to inform those involved of what they wanted to do and their reasons.”
The information that the activists would have to pay the repatriation costs was reported and confirmed by several media outlets with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The four Portuguese who were part of the Global Sumud flotilla landed last Sunday at about 10:30 PM at Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon, where they were awaited by family members and pro-Palestinian supporters.
The coordinator of the Left Bloc, Mariana Mortágua, actress Sofia Aparício, and activists Miguel Duarte and Diogo Chaves were detained in Israel after Israeli forces intercepted around 50 ships of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which intended to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
