A moment of tension marked the inauguration of the Lisbon Book Fair this Wednesday, when the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, was confronted by a pro-Palestinian activist. The woman, wielding a poster with the phrase “There is a genocide of Palestine,” interrupted the president with a direct appeal to political action.
During the confrontation, the activist criticized the president’s inaction and the Prime Minister in the face of the situation in the Gaza Strip, appealing to participation in a demonstration in Largo de Camões. When he ended her intervention, Marcelo tried to dialogue with her, when he grabbed her by the neck, leading the woman to ask her: “Do not grasp me in the neck.”
Visibly uncomfortable, the activist refused to continue the conversation, saying, “Tell journalists, don’t tell me. I already know the president’s explanations.”
Subsequently, Marcelo reacted to the incident and recalled that “Portugal, for the first time, changed the sense of vote in the United Nations”, supporting the admission of Palestine as a member of full right. He also added that the Portuguese government is “pondering a joint attitude with other European states” regarding the formal recognition of the Palestinian state.
