The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, today called for a dignified status for the military, without whom “there are no strong Armed Forces”, considering that the unrepeatable moment in Portugal’s history cannot be squandered.
“(…) Strong Armed Forces are ships, planes and armored vehicles, but they are, above all, those who sail them, fly them and drive them and who either have a status worthy of being military and remaining military, or, once again, an unrepeatable moment in our history can be squandered, just as the unrepeatable moment of fulfilling what remains to be fulfilled in the Statute of the Former Combatant must not be squandered,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
In Batalha (Leiria), where he presided over the ceremonies commemorating the 106th anniversary of the Battle of La Lys and Combatant’s Day, also attended by the Minister of National Defense, Nuno Melo, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces considered that “it is so simple to understand this here, next to the monastery of the struggle for national sovereignty, that it is important not to waste any more time discovering what should have been obvious a long time ago”.
“This is the evidence that, once again, your Supreme Commander wants to reach all Portuguese people in the year in which we celebrate half a century of a decisive change in the life of Portugal [the Revolution of April 25, 1974], made at that decisive time by whom?” he asked, answering “by the military”.
“Just as they were soldiers fighting with determination at La Lys, throughout the Great War, just as they were soldiers later on overseas, in three different African territories, living one, two, three, four, in some cases five successive tours of duty, called up in the name of Portugal,” he continued, stressing that, “without soldiers, there are no strong Armed Forces, without strong Armed Forces, there is no strong Portugal.”
Earlier, referring to the Battle, whose Monastery was erected in thanks for the victory in the Battle of Aljubarrota, the President of the Republic declared that it recalls the Portuguese soldiers “present on the borders of Europe, to the north, east, south, west, in Africa, in the center, west, east, south, present on other continents, present on all the oceans, present, therefore, on sea, land and air”.
“Batalha lifts our spirits for Ukraine, the Middle East, the Red Sea, Africa in growing tensions, the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the North and South Atlantic. Batalha tells us that prevention is better than cure. Making peace begins with preventing and avoiding war,” said the Head of State.
“Wars are won with a variety of skills, but they are won even more with people, with people, with what only they and not machines can do,” he said.
According to the Head of State, the commemorations at this historic site invite us “to thank the centuries of Portugal, only made possible by the hand” of the combatants, to “understand that the Armed Forces are not relics of the past, they are guarantees of the present and the future”.
“And that if Portugal really wants to be important in the world, when the United Nations Secretary General [António Guterres] finishes his duties, when it is doing everything it can to be a member of the Security Council or to have its best in leadership positions in the European Union or NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization], then it should not forget that it will only achieve this with diplomacy, but also with strong Armed Forces,” he added.
For Nuno Melo, Portugal has a duty to fulfill towards former combatants
The Minister of National Defense, Nuno Melo, considered today that Portugal still has duties to fulfill “in a fair policy for former combatants”, to better treat their social or health problems.
“(…) Portugal still has duties to fulfill in a fair policy for former combatants that aims to better address, for example, the social and health problems that still persist and to honor the soldiers who live this memory, made this sacrifice and fulfilled the mission assigned to them with honor,” said Nuno Melo, in Batalha (Leiria).
At the ceremonies commemorating the 106th anniversary of the Battle of La Lys and Combatant’s Day, Nuno Melo, on his first visit as minister, acknowledged that the 20th century was “difficult for the Portuguese”, highlighting, “because of its relationship with today and the infinite memories it carries, a war in Africa for more than a decade”.
“Because of the nature of that war, the combatants in that war, and the nation as a whole, nobody asked whether the conflict, in the second half of the century, in the midst of the rise of the independence movements, made political sense,” he said.
Those who “lost their lives in the operational theaters of that war, those who were wounded or disabled and those who survived and are still alive” are part of Portugal’s history, the minister said, paying tribute to them.
In a speech in which he quoted former CDS leader Adriano Moreira (1922-2022), from the same party as Nuno Melo, according to whom Portugal was “a country forged by soldiers”, the minister clarified that the government’s program “has not yet been legitimized by the Assembly of the Republic”, asking for understanding for the short speech.
However, he promised that soon there will be “the opportunity to express the fundamental lines of action for National Defence in this legislature, including the issues of the Armed Forces’ human resources, their infrastructure and equipment, the conceptualization adapted to the new threats, the social policy in this sector and also, of course, the care and dignification of former combatants”.
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