In a noteworthy parliamentary session, Portugal’s Legislature on Wednesday dismissed an initiative proposed by the far-right party Chega to indict the nation’s president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa for treachery, owing to his endorsement for reparations to former Portuguese colonies for servitude and abusive behavior during colonization. The noteworthy development was originally reported by JURIST.
The contention dates back to April 2023 when President Marcelo de Sousa openly declared Portugal’s need to carry the can for atrocities committed during the colonial era. An year later, de Sousa recommended that Portugal needs to meet the cost incurred due to the crimes committed in former colonies, including slavery and colonial massacres, even proposing a financial compensation formula. His proposal, however, was met with national ranged debates and rebuffs from several parties, including the government which rejected the proposition.
Notably, de Sousa’s proposal was announced shortly after the UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk urged nations historically involved in slavery to take solid actions and provide reparations for individuals of African descent.
The far-right political group Chega, under the leadership of André Ventura, launched charges against Marcelo de Sousa of committing “treason against the Fatherland” in response to the latter’s statements on compensation for Portugal’s colonial-era atrocities. Ventura continued to propose a “political process for impeachment” in order to remove de Sousa from his presidential office, criticizing Portugal’s former presidents who did not promote compensation for the country’s ex-overseas provinces.
Although Ventura stressed that the President’s words were disgraceful to Portuguese ancestors in his parliamentary debate, he failed to gain support for his President-implicating initiative. Joana Martaguà, a deputy from the Left Bloc, even argued that Chega were utilizing the president’s statement on historical reparation as a pretense for hate-motivated retaliation against democracy.
Throughout historical contexts, Portugal remained a colonial empire from 1415 to 1999, holding the realm over countries like Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, and Mozambique, and was also the initiator of the Transatlantic slave trade. In this period, close to six million Africans were enslaved and transported across the Atlantic Ocean on Portuguese vessels towards the Americas.