Former PM urges country to ‘strengthen sense of national community’

Former Prime Minister, ex-European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso was one of the guest speakers at the PSD/CDS-PP party conference in Cascais yesterday, and his message was that Portugal needs to strengthen its “sense of national community” – without resorting to xenophobia.

Delivering a speech on “Europe, the World: some reflections from Portugal”, the politician whose career changed gear via corporate revolving doors, stressed that “patriotism is not nationalism; nationalism is hatred of others, while patriotism is love for what is ours”.

Praising “the wonderful decision” of the government to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the founding of Portugal, Barroso said: “Let us strengthen our sense of national community, but in a spirit of openness, not in a spirit of chauvinism or xenophobia”.

It was overwhelmingly a speech critical of the slowness of decision-making in the European Union, explains Lusa.

“We are naturally European, naturally Atlantic, and we must affirm this at a time when some doubt it, and we must affirm it with conviction,” he said.

On the subject of Donald Trump, Barroso stated that, while one might “like or dislike” the President of the United States, everyone must agree that “he has changed the grammar of politics”, and Europe cannot blame him for all its problems.

“In my view, we Europeans must, above all, do our homework. It is very easy today to say that Trump is to blame, but it is not because of Trump that Europe has not completed its single market; it is not because of Trump that Europe does not have a banking union; it is not because of Trump that Europe does not have a capital markets union – it is because we have not yet done our work…”.

He acknowledged nonetheless that Europe is finally facing up to its duties and responsibilities in areas such as defence and security  moving towards “a Europeanisation of NATO” – which by coincidence is having one of its most important summits, right now in Ankara, Turkey.

“That is why, in my view, it makes sense for us Europeans to take the lead in supporting Ukraine,” Barroso went on.

During a panel discussion at the congress, on the theme “State of the Nation: a look at Portugal”, journalist and writer Miguel Sousa Tavares challenged the PSD and CDS-PP leadership to abandon what he called “the dirty word of reforms” and explain issues such as the draft labour package, and solidarity-based work of the Single Social Benefit initiative, ‘more clearly’.

Parliamentary leader Hugo Soares accepted “his share of the blame” in government failures, but also questioned the role of the media – arguing that it should focus “less on the froth of daily life and more on people’s problems”.

“We need to create a protective barrier for Portuguese journalism, which involves journalists being better paid, as this also brings independence,” he argued.

Source: LUSA