Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa visited the Food Bank Against Hunger in Alcântara, Lisbon, on the day the food collection campaign began, making his donation as the Portuguese head of state.
When asked if he felt frustrated by the poverty levels in the country, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was firm: “Ah, yes, I feel frustration.”
In the same statements, he recalled that the issue of poverty in Portugal has persisted for more than 50 years and shared his observations on the efforts of various governments over the decades, “who did what they could, tried to do what they could.”
He listed several factors contributing to this scenario: international crises, health situations like the COVID-19 pandemic, and the aging of Portuguese society itself.
“The Portuguese society and European societies are aging very rapidly, and aging means impoverishment, and it also means a difficulty” after making a turnaround, he noted.
“And we largely turned around, as you know, due to immigration, but it was only a partial reversal,” he emphasized, indicating it was not entirely reversed.
He continued: “I don’t know if you’ve seen the latest numbers (…) on births in hospital units in Portugal, where the number of births among the immigrant population has increased rapidly, for a very simple reason: they are younger, more numerous, and are thereby partially sustaining the situation of the Portuguese population.”
At the beginning of his remarks to journalists, following the visit, the head of state expressed gratitude to the Federation of Food Banks, as President of the Republic, for the “many, many, many years of service to the country.”
“And if there’s a sadness I have in my heart, it’s because poverty hasn’t decreased as it should have,” he highlighted.
Two million Portuguese “is a lot of Portuguese, and nearly 400,000 of those receive support from the Food Banks, which means that’s a fifth” of that total, he stated.
Nonetheless, he takes joy from seeing “more volunteers, more young people,” he added.
On October 17, the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Portugal highlighted the persistent number of people at risk of poverty, exceeding two million, showcasing that this phenomenon remains a structural problem in the country.
The food collection campaign by the Food Bank Against Hunger involves over 42,000 volunteers in 2,000 stores nationwide, inviting the sharing of non-perishable food with those in need.
The campaign runs until November 30 in physical stores, but extends to December 7 at www.alimentestaideia.pt.
