PS and BE accused the Portuguese Government this Friday of subservience to United States military operations, but the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs rejected this and assured that Portugal complies with the laws and is out of the conflict.
This debate followed statements made by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday, who praised Portugal for accepting the United States’ request to use the Lajes Base in the conflict with Iran. In an interview with Marco Rubio also said that this authorization was given before Portugal even knew what the request would be.
In parliament, during the opening of a current affairs debate requested by the PCP, the PS parliamentary leader, Eurico Brilhante Dias, confronted minister Carlos Abreu Amorim with the US Secretary of State’s position on Portugal.
“The Government ended up leading the country to a humiliation of a planetary scale. The Portuguese Government always hunkered down, always cowered. It was never clear”, accused the president of the socialist bench.
“Portugal is a country that doesn’t ask questions”
Eurico Brilhante Dias said that the war “began with an attack on Iran that violated International Law and the Government only informed the opposition parties when Iran was already being bombed”.
“Yesterday [quinta-feira]Secretary of State [Marco Rubio] comes to say that Portugal is not just a country that collaborates, it is a country that doesn’t ask”, added the president of the PS bench.
Soon afterwards, Left Bloc deputy Fabian Figueiredo declared: “No more lies”.
“The Lajes Base is a logistical depot for an illegal war that Portugal allows without strictly asking anything. In North American propaganda, the Government turned Portugal into a lapel of illegal war and should be ashamed because of that. The Portuguese deserve respect, because they are paying the consequences of this illegal war”, he said.
Minister says that Government respects the law
In his response, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs considered the “rhetoric against the Atlantic Alliance of the Left Bloc” natural, but expressed himself “surprised and even a little stupefied by the PS’s position” – a position that he said was contrary to the History of Portuguese socialists.
Then, in an indirect demarcation in relation to what had been stated by the US Secretary of State, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs cited the leader of the executive, Luís Montenegro, and the holder of the Foreign Affairs portfolio, Paulo Rangel, and declared: “Portugal has respected, respects and will respect all national and international legislation on this matter, particularly that which concerns overflights and landings”, he said, in an allusion to the issue of using the Lajes Base.
Carlos Abreu Amorim also emphasized that Portugal “respects all the principles and all emanations of International Law and the United Nations”.
“It is not worth creating cases where they do not exist. Portugal is not a party to this conflict. Portugal respects in an intrinsic way and in an irremovable way all the precepts of national and international law on this matter”, he highlighted.
In a second intervention, in the same debate, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs counterattacked against what Eurico Brilhante Dias had previously stated.
“Portugal does not crouch, the Portuguese Government does not crouch. It is a country with 900 years of history, proud of its history, its past and present”, he maintained.
At the national political level, added Carlos Abreu Amorim, “it is regrettable and sad that the PS tries to fill its eventual gaps on the far left and is sticking to a rhetoric that does not do justice to its history in this followership way.”
Before this discussion, in the initial part of the debate, the PCP was criticized by the Liberal Initiative, PSD and CDS for having addressed the Government on the issue of peace, but, at the same time, “ignoring” Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine.
In response, the secretary general of the PCP said that his party warned of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine as early as 2014.
“We did everything in our power to curb what is visible to everyone today with brutal consequences. All acts of aggression and all wars are reprehensible”, reacted Paulo Raimundo.
