“Attempting to broaden the sense of Portuguese identity is an important message in times of growing xenophobia, racism, and conflicts seemingly built around identities,” she stated.
Joana Mortágua spoke to Lusa regarding the speech by the head of state, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, at the military ceremony commemorating June 10th, held in Lagos, Faro district.
Highlighting that the President’s speech was “quite brief and partly very connected with Lídia Jorge’s,” the BE leader recalled Marcelo’s remark that “no Portuguese citizen can claim to be purer than another.”
“It is the idea of an open Portuguese identity, that a closed identity does not make sense historically,” she noted, arguing that “attempting to define what it means to be Portuguese based on certain closed characteristics is a historical lie.”
Joana Mortágua also emphasized the part of the speech where the head of state advocates for better care, especially for the poor, acknowledging that “there is an awareness” that Portugal is experiencing “times of profound economic inequality.”
“The central issues for ordinary people continue to be economic inequality, the housing crisis, poverty, the need to care for each other, to maintain a community built on that solidarity rather than on a false idea of identity,” she stressed.
Regarding Lídia Jorge’s speech, a State Councilor who spoke as the president of the Organizing Committee of the June 10th Celebrations in Lagos, the BE leader argued that “it is a speech that deserves to be studied.”
“It is not only a critique of ignorance but also a critique of the praise of ignorance that seems to be part of our times, and an extraordinary ability to speak about Portugal’s history from Camões, but without doing so from a purist, crystallized, ossified place,” she emphasized.
For Joana Mortágua, the president of the Organizing Committee of the June 10th Celebrations in Lagos was “able to praise the people who fought for freedom and against oppression and who yielded to diversity.”
“It is a speech that demonstrates a great love for Portugal and its history, not from feelings and attitudes of exclusion and hatred, but precisely from the opposite, feelings of freedom, the possibility of rethinking history,” she remarked.
The BE leader also highlighted the “mention of slavery” in Lídia Jorge’s speech, noting that this reference “is still rarely made when addressing the history of Portugal.”
“But it is important and part of our history to have launched this tragedy, being partially responsible for this humanitarian tragedy,” she added.
