“The Government will need to rectify this, I don’t even question the opposite, it doesn’t even cross my mind that there will be any debate on this matter; it is so evident that it needs rectification that I don’t think there will be any debate about it,” said Paulo Raimundo to reporters at the national headquarters of the Green Party (PEV) in Lisbon, following a meeting with the party’s leadership.
The PCP Secretary-General was referring to the fact that, according to reports, the far-right group responsible for the aggression against an actor from the company A Barraca in Lisbon was removed from the final version of the 2024 RASI, prompting the BE to request a discussion of the report in the plenary of the Assembly of the Republic.
Paulo Raimundo emphasized that not only was the group allegedly responsible for this aggression removed from the RASI but all far-right movements, reiterating that “the Government will need to rectify this.”
Commenting on the attack on actor Adérito Lopes, Paulo Raimundo condemned “clearly and unequivocally” what he described as a “cowardly action” and an attack not only on the actor but also “on culture, freedom, and democracy.”
“It is a dynamic of hate and violence completely incompatible with our Constitution, so we also say here that it is necessary for the Constitution to be enforced, and there can be no complacency with these attitudes,” he argued.
Paulo Raimundo stressed that, “unfortunately, this is not a unique and isolated case,” but is part of a context of increasing “hate speech and violence” which then results in incidents like the one on Tuesday, “of brutal aggression.”
When asked if he agrees with the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, who argued that incidents like Tuesday’s show the need to strengthen policing in Lisbon, Paulo Raimundo replied: “What we need is more of the Constitution.”
“More wages, more pensions, more NHS, less poverty in our country. We have two million poor people in our country, 300,000 children. What we need is to remove pretexts—if they exist, which they do not—for this hate speech and this speech of violence,” he maintained.
The PCP Secretary-General further argued that there is a need “to comply with the Constitution regarding the criminalization of hate speech and racist and xenophobic discourses.”
“As long as we do not do this, as long as we think that this discourse, these practices, can be combated with more security, what we are doing is giving even more strength to these people,” he considered.
PEV leader Heloísa Apolónia, speaking to reporters, also vehemently condemned “hate, intolerance, racism, and xenophobia speeches” and the attitudes that stem from them, expressing solidarity with the theater company A Barraca.
Regarding the meeting between PCP and PEV, Paulo Raimundo stated there is a “great harmony of opinions” in the face of current challenges, at a time when the right is “gaining strength,” and assured that his party will maintain its commitment within the CDU, with the ecological party in the upcoming local elections, to try to maintain and conquer more than the current 19 municipalities that the coalition holds.
Meanwhile, Heloísa Apolónia stated that, despite PEV not having succeeded in electing deputies in these legislative elections, it will maintain its priorities—namely the defense of biodiversity, combating climate change, or pacifism—and defend them in “direct contact” with the population, including in local elections.
