The Porto City Council executive today rejected, by a majority vote, a proposal by the BE to project the Palestinian flag on the façade of the Paços do Concelho building in a show of solidarity with its people.
The proposal presented by the BE at the executive meeting included three points, which were voted on separately at the request of the PSD.
The projection of the Palestinian flag on the façade of the town hall was one of these points and was voted against by the mayor, three councillors from the independent movement and the PSD, with two councillors from the independent movement abstaining, and the BE, CDU, PS and the independent councillor voting in favor.
The recommendation also urged the council to call on the government to join the more than 140 countries that have already recognized the State of Palestine, which was rejected.
The only point approved unanimously is to express support for the positions of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and international organizations calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
For the PSD, councillor Alberto Machado defended the need for peace in the Gaza Strip, but said he had “misgivings” about recognizing the State of Palestine and displaying the flag.
“We believe that we should recognize Palestine within the framework of the European Union,” he said, citing financial reasons for displaying the flag.
“I don’t know if we should always be voting on projections of flags on the façade of the municipality. I’d like to take this opportunity to ask if the executive knows how much each projection costs, because from what I’ve seen it seems to me to be quite complicated logistically,” he added.
The mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, said he “generally” agreed with the proposal’s recitals and with the ceasefire, pointing out, however, that with regard to the recognition of Palestine, “both the government and the main Portuguese political parties have taken the position that this is not the time”.
Rui Moreira argued that the recognition of the State of Palestine and the projection of the flag “only make sense if they are combined”, warning that this is a “matter of conscience”.
Both the CDU and the PS agreed with the proposal.
BE councillor Sérgio Aires told Lusa that he was surprised by the proposal’s rejection, saying that it “has no ideological charge”.
As for the projection of the flag, he considered the decision to be paradigmatic.
“When it was at the request of the Israeli embassy, when it was the Hamas attack, it made sense and there was solidarity, but it would also make sense with what we are seeing now,” he said, saying that all the political forces have shown solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Sérgio Aires believes that the municipality is still in time to change its decision and display the Palestinian flag on the façade of the Town Hall, as it did on October 10, 2023, after being requested to do so by the Israeli embassy in Portugal.
