“Young people today know more than 20 or 30 years ago,” says Marcelo

O former President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa defended in Alenquer that today's young people are more knowledgeable and more dynamic and uninhibited than those of two or three decades ago.

“ Compared to other experiences that I had 20 or 30 years ago, when I ran basic and secondary, these students know more, know more, have a much greater contact with information, are more active, are more dynamic, speak more freely, are more uninhibited, organize more intensely”, said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in statements to journalists.

Needless to answer questions about today, namely about those encamped by the right to housing, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa added only that “in general, [young people] are very open to many activities, cultural, scientific, local, social, civic, if you like.”.

The President of the Republic, who spoke to journalists in the margins of a class that gathered about a hundred students at the Damião de Goes Secondary School in Alenquer, in the district of Lisbon, said that he has a list of “almost 200 schools” waiting for him, having scheduled schools in the Azores in April and Madeira in May.

“ What I can say is that the level of accession has been very high,” he said.

Throughout the country, he has found “young people with a degree of commitment, participation, civilism, tolerance, dialogue and very high knowledge,” he added.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said he was considering extending visits to schools to the third cycle of basic education.

In his visits to schools, the former President of the Republic pointed out that he observed greater participation of women and a greater number of nationalities among students as he traveled to the south of the country on his visit.

“ It is an increased effort that schools are making of integration and that integration is easier in the basic, first cycle, and then it is increasingly difficult because economic and social inequalities increase as age increases,” he noted.