Safe thanks Marcelo for the Book Festival and asks people: “Read”

António José Seguro opened today the 9th edition of the Feast of the Book in Belém, which takes place in the gardens of the Palace of Belém until Sunday, a moment in which he was accompanied by the former head of state, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who created this initiative that Seguro decided to maintain.

“I want to distinguish my predecessor, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, because it is his idea and it is right that this idea, which is a beautiful idea that I, right away in the election campaign, said that it would continue because good ideas and good initiatives, and were executed by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa for 10 years, deserve to continue”you did.

The President of the Republic thanked his predecessor for the idea of “turning the book into a party”, confiding that when he said he was going to keep this initiative of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a “close person” asked him why he would continue “something that is from another President”.

“ I know there's a lot of this culture, the culture that comes again, starts again, and everything that's done behind, sucks. I have no idea. Quite the opposite. I think this is an example that should make seed, that should proliferate in the country”he did.

Safe left an appeal: “Read, read, read”.

“ You have to read it because a nation that reads is a happier nation, is a more cultured nation, is a freer nation, is a nation that knows how to choose better, and when you choose better, you are all happier. And so this call for reading is very important”, he asked.

The head of state went on stage in the gardens of the Palace of Bethlehem with a book in his hand and, at the end of the speech, wanted to share some passages of the work that accompanied him during the weeks of vacation or, as I said, in the period in “he is not obliged to put on a suit and tie” and “he may own his” because a “President never has a vacation”.

“The Art of Not Always Reason”, by Martin Desrosiers, is, in the opinion of Insurance, “a book that all opinionators should read and assimilate before opening their mouths”.

“ Alarm screams are loud because the challenge is vital. When political dialogue is hindered to the point of preventing any exchange worthy of that name, it concerns not only its health, but the very survival of our democracies. If we all remain obstinately attached to our certainties and if the resulting political cleavages are perceived wrongly, more than with reason, with insurmountable abysses, the democratic debate turns into a war of dead-end trenches”, he read.

The President of the Republic continued to read to the audience this book which he considered “very timely”: “That there be a fight in the democratic hut is really the idea, but that this battle becomes vehemently to the point of being unreasonable and unproductive, this is the real danger that threatens us.”.