On the sidelines of a rally in the municipality within the Aveiro district and the Porto Metropolitan Area, the national party leader reacted to recent accusations from the former President of the Assembly of the Republic, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, who criticized him for “enormous gravity and irresponsibility” by considering the four Portuguese detained in Israel aboard a humanitarian flotilla heading to Palestine — including Mariana Mortágua, BE coordinator — as terrorist supporters.
“It would be bad if I, the president of CDS, had to seek authorization from Ferro Rodrigues to speak about what makes perfect sense to me and the CDS, because it is completely logical,” declared Nuno Melo.
“Yes, Hamas is a terrorist organization, as it is recognized by the European Union from the outset. What is Ferro Rodrigues’ doubt?” added the CDS-PP leader regarding the organization responsible for the 2023 attack in Israel that led to the subsequent war in Gaza.
Insisting that “the CDS is a party where freedom is practiced” and that it is not “under supervision,” Nuno Melo stated: “We can do without all the mannerisms of any little Lenin learners, and yes, what is believed and affirmed in the CDS — with the right to this expression, which is free — is that the flotilla was a pamphleteering gesture that did not solve any humanitarian problems.”
For Nuno Melo, who is also the Minister of National Defense, the initiative of the four Portuguese represents risks for Portugal as a state: “When some more radical movements come together to attack our allies — NATO and those we would rely on if we ever needed — the main beneficiaries are, for example, Iran’s proxies. (…) Therefore, Ferro Rodrigues represents a slightly more radical left wing of the PS — which will not be a problem for the CDS and, at most, is a problem for the current socialist leadership.”
Regarding the deportation by Israel of the four Portuguese, whose arrival in Portugal was announced for tonight, Nuno Melo notes that, “if they arrive, it’s good news,” but he admits greater expectations regarding their behavior from now on.
“We all hope that those who were detained — and who would have known [before the trip] that, being Israel a state of law, detention would be a likely outcome — are now returned to their country. They have already made their statement, their political proclamation,” began the CDS leader.
“But I hope they do not now join some demonstrations where I saw, among other things, signs saying ‘Israel should not exist,’ as if being pro-Palestine means they have to extinguish the state of Israel,” he concludes.
For Nuno Melo, what matters is that Hamas hostages “are returned to their families in Israel” and that, both there and in Gaza, the aggressions stop and “there is peace.”
Regarding new demonstrations, he defends the right to them, but when asked about the possibility of the Left inflaming these protests, he says that such initiatives should comply with the rules of a state of law, “where everyone can speak without having to silence the other.”
“The CDS does not accept that a demonstration is turned into intimidation and (…) harms other people who want to live their lives,” he concludes, with a promise: “You will never see me in any demonstration where it is said that a country must cease to exist and that its people must head to another place.”
