The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Left Bloc (BE) have condemned the attack on an actor from the theatre company A Barraca in Lisbon on Tuesday night, criticizing the government.
“Full solidarity with Adérito Lopes, actor of the theatre A Barraca attacked by neo-Nazis. It is urgent to end the impunity of these criminal associations (the ones the Government omitted from the Internal Security Report),” wrote former deputy António Filipe in a post on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
Mariana Mortágua, the sole coordinator and deputy of the BE, also reacted to the incident.
“Neo-fascists attack books, theatre, and those who create culture. They do so because they think they can. The PSD government removed the threat of the far-right from the internal security report. It is the greatest risk to our democracy. Solidarity with the theatre d’A Barraca. Let’s fight,” Mortágua wrote on the same social network.
It should be noted that actor Adérito Lopes was assaulted on Tuesday, an attack that led to the cancellation of a session of the play ‘Amor é um fogo que arde sem se ver’, a show by A Barraca at the Teatro Cinearte, confirmed actress and director Maria do Céu Guerra.
In statements to RTP3, Maria do Céu Guerra said the attack was carried out by “a group of people coming from a demonstration at Martim Moniz”.
The director and leader of the company pointed out that the attack stemmed from “political motivations”. The group left a piece of paper that read: “Remigração. Portugal aos ‘portuguezes'”, associated with the ultranationalist group Reconquista. They also shouted phrases like “defend your blood”.
After the attack, the suspects “fled” and at least one person was detained by the Public Security Police (PSP). Notícias ao Minuto reached out to the security force, which declined to provide any information at this time.
The group that carried out the attack left a piece of paper that read: “Remigração. Portugal aos ‘portuguezes'”, associated with the ultranationalist group Reconquista.
In April, after the Annual Internal Security Report (RASI) was sent to the Assembly of the Republic and published on the Government’s website, the Left Bloc requested clarifications from the Government regarding the disappearance of the final version of the chapter dedicated to extremist organizations.
In response sent to Lusa at the time, the Internal Security System (SSI) admitted that there was a “working version” of the RASI that included information on extremist organizations, different from the “official version” presented at the meeting of the Superior Council of Internal Security.
“Any other version that the media may have had access to pertains to a working version subject to discussion and reformulations in the Security Coordinator’s Office and the Superior Council of Internal Security,” stated the SSI, responsible for drafting the RASI.
The SSI further clarified that the version published on the Government’s website corresponds to the version presented at the meeting of the Superior Council of Internal Security and the version sent to parliamentary deputies, without explaining why information about extremist organizations was removed from the working version.
The matter also led the Socialist Party (PS) to request clarifications from the Government about the different versions of the RASI.
Also in April, PSD, CDS, and Chega rejected a request from BE for the permanent committee of the Assembly of the Republic to discuss, with the presence of the Government, the elimination of a chapter dedicated to extremist organizations in the final version of RASI 2024.
This rejection was strongly criticized by PS, PCP, and Livre, who accused PSD, CDS-PP, and Chega of having “security on the lips” but not wanting to debate it in parliament.
[Updated at 23:51]
