MEP and presidential candidate João Cotrim de Figueiredo warned today, in Porto, of the need to protect the situation of more than 500 thousand Portuguese and Portuguese descendants in Venezuela after the air blockade ordered by the United States.
Speaking on the sidelines of the visit to the Cordoaria Christmas Market, Cotrim de Figueiredo added, however, that the current President of the Republic and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “have made the necessary preparation so that this community is minimally safeguarded, given that that number of people cannot be evacuated, therefore, it must be taken care of in another way”.
Regarding the country led by Nicolás Maduro, the candidate stated that it is “a dictatorial regime, which nowadays is no longer really of any political color” and that it is “clearly transforming into a narco-state” and that, therefore, “it is not just an issue of security or crime. It is also a political problem with the dimension it has already reached”.
“It doesn’t shock me, for example, that certain narco-states are considered accomplices in terrorism or even terrorists. It doesn’t shock me because this can be a reality and has happened, given, once again, the financial dimension of the issue. Now, this does not justify subversions of international law”, he stressed.
Regarding the revocation of TAP’s license to fly in the airspace of that South American country, the candidate considered it “an abuse, yet another, by Nicolás Maduro (…) and which has led to increasingly vocal internal opposition, including from some who initially supported his dictatorship such as the Venezuelan Communist Party, which has even criticized the Portuguese Communist Party for not understanding what is going on in Venezuela”.
“Therefore, once again, our Portuguese Communist Party is very slow to feel the winds of History and not put itself on the right side of history”, he criticized.
In another context, the candidate considered it very limiting and sad to be limiting the presidential debate to partisan themes and the froth of the day, stating that “there is no need to talk about geopolitical changes, international trade, the new political blocs that will be formed, the future of Europe, what Portugal’s alliance policy is in the context of Defense and in the context of Diplomacy, technological developments”.
“It seems very, very limiting and very sad that we are limiting the presidential debate to themes that are somehow more partisan and in some way also (…) the foam of the day”, he added.
Emphasizing that candidates must “encourage people to think for themselves”, the candidate underlined that in the race for the presidency of the Republic (…) “the person’s character and attitude are much more important than their party origin or their political path”.
“I want these people to feel called to participate in the public discussion because I believe that it will not be one, not ten, not a hundred, not a thousand Portuguese people who will contribute to the solution of problems that are new and many of them difficult. It will be the population as a whole wanting, in fact, to participate and what can a President of the Republic do? He can say that they are expected to participate, he can open the space for this participation, he can give people confidence and optimism that together we can do much more than we have done so far”, continued.
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