[ad_1]
The President of the Republic confirmed, in a statement to the country, the Prime Minister’s message that the confinement is bearing fruit, although it has to last “March out”, so as not to give wrong signals about Holy Week. But he added that everything must happen “without political crises” or calls for “governments of national salvation.” “Don’t count on me to give the slightest echo to scenarios of political or electoral crisis,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
After the approval in Parliament of the decree to renew the state of emergency, in the preamble of which the head of state asked the Government for deflation plans and a return to face-to-face classes, the Prime Minister made a statement in the evening in which He said it was “premature” to think about detours, even if only in their molds. Then he met with the President of the Republic. When Marcelo spoke to the country, he essentially agreed with the prime minister, but he insisted on the demand for plans and added a political message of uncertain recipient.
In the specifications that Portugal has to assume, the first word of the Head of State was to agree with what the Prime Minister had said an hour before: “We must maintain the state of emergency and confinement like the current ones for another 15 days, and to move on, March came out, by the same path, so as not to give wrong signs of Holy Week ”.
The second word was to define minimum levels of deflation, targeting the figures: “We must, until Easter, reduce the infected to less than two thousand, so that hospitalizations and intensive care can drop from more than five thousand and more than eight hundred now to about a quarter of those numbers. And also, to reduce the spread of the virus to European numbers ”. It will have to be a “sustained, lasting stabilization, without ups and downs”, so as not to run the risk of being “another mismatch between two waves”.
The third word went directly to the management of the pandemic by the Government: “We must improve the screening of contaminated people, with more tests and, above all, with more operations, and bear in mind the constant challenge of a possible vaccination” . These are, he said, “the key pieces for successful deflation.”
If in the decree you asked for a plan due to lack of definition, now explain what should be in that plan. And he insists on the request for support to the victims in the economic and social sphere of the pandemic: “We must continue to support, and quickly support, those who, in the economy and in society, suffer these weeks of sacrifice.”
“All without political crises,” he said. “All without unity scenarios or national salvation governments. Do not count on me to give the slightest echo to scenarios of political or electoral crisis. The health crisis and the economic and social crisis are enough for us, ”he insisted.
He had already said that, in these last two weeks, “the Portuguese learned what common sense had already advised them – causing, at this moment, political crises, with scenarios of governments outside the parties, with undesirable results – in time lost. in the third elections of the summer and nothing new on the horizon, it served no other purpose than to aggravate the pandemic, never shorten it.
That is the mandate that the Portuguese say they have: “Overcome crises, even the most serious ones. Do not cause crises, not even the most seductive. And count, always, but always, with the Portuguese! “And it was to this mandate that he referred in his speech on the night of the presidential elections, when he said that he realized that the Portuguese vote was not” a blank check “and that he knew what it meant.
What the Portuguese understood
Marcelo began his statement by stating that the last two weeks were “difficult”, but “they ended better than they started.” “They started with a number of infections and deaths among the worst in Europe and the worst in the world, extremely high pressure on health structures, news of favoritism in the diversion of vaccines, divided feelings about European support and, in some voices of political opinion, winks to the governments of national salvation ”.
But over the days, he says, it was possible “to clarify what seemed incomprehensible, decide what to expect, bring reason where emotion reigned, understand what was changing.”
It did not materialize, but added that “the Portuguese understood” several things. This “European support was symbolic”, that “there are delays in the production and supply of vaccines in Europe” and that this will force Portugal to “vaccinate more and more quickly” from April. And that “those responsible for favoritism in the diversion of vaccines were going to be punished in an exemplary manner.”
The replacement of the coordinator of the National Vaccination Plan by a military one, defended by Marcelo, also deserved a mention in the speech: “The Portuguese understood that to underline the fundamental help of our Armed Forces – present since March 2020 – to health personnel and mayors – is an asset in the vaccination process.
But they also understood what he considered “the most important thing”: it is possible to reduce the number of infected people per day “from more than 15 thousand or 16 thousand to between two and seven thousand” and this – to stay – “could, in weeks , month, month and a half, reduce the enormous pressure on health structures ”.
It was also to the Portuguese that he dedicated the last words, to “thank the” global confinement “, to ask for” more resistance even in the near future “and” to give hope, because without hope the sacrifice of the day to day “loses meaning. “.
