Marcelo warns that if intolerance continues it may be difficult to recover

O former President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa warned today that if the “reigning climate” in societies continues to be of intolerance, the “owners of truth” and “emotional radicalization” may be very difficult to recover.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa took part today in a session “Portugal–Mozambique: Dialogue, Cooperation and Development” at the Mário Soares Foundation and Maria Barroso, in Lisbon, in which the former President of Mozambique Joaquim Chissano and the secretary-general of the PS, José Luís Carneiro also spoke.

“ The emotional radicalization that dominates these times – more than rational, emotional – makes the great option today that crosses humanity is whether or not to be the sole owner of the truth and therefore intolerant against others having a sharing of the truth, and there is dialogue and there is a need to make bridges ", he defended.

Marcelo found that one is living “a time of intolerance”, in which those who nicknamed “owners of the truth” decide to impose “unilaterally the truth”, with the rest “molding what is defined” by their will every second, minute, hour or day.

“Now this is conquering many souls. Conquers many public opinions, conquers many societies and conquers many accessions. For what is the key theme of today's weighting it is important that this is not the prevailing climate ", warned.

From the perspective of the former head of state, “if the prevailing climate is this for a couple of years or more” it will be “very difficult to recover from what seemed to be evidence less than ten years ago.”.

“ Either people accept that this is how it is and they realize it, or they don't understand it and it takes a long time to realize it. When they realized it was too late, it was too late ", warned.

Marcelo considered that this way of seeing and leading the world emerged “due to the weakness of what existed”.

“The economy, like society, as politics has horror to the void and if there is emptiness, someone fills the void,” he explained.

In view of this situation, according to the former President of the Republic, “there are two possible ways out”, one of them being the “top of the tops change in orientation has imprinted on the international scene”.

“ And this change must be accompanied by changes in a reasonable time because there is a phase. Who inaugurates a style, who inaugurates a culture, who inaugurates a way of seeing the world, knows that then there are waves that project this on various continents ", said.

Marcelo warned that “the top change is sustained only if it is accompanied by the weight of the base”.

“The top only changes if those who have to decide, at each moment, what is the top manifest in the direction of change. And when the world ends up relying on decisions that are very, very unilateral and restricted it means that this base is of fundamental importance”, he observed.