The Government clarified this Saturday that "there was and there is no process or specific action program with the purpose" of reparation for the Portuguese colonial past, arguing that the Executive will follow "the same line" as previous Governments.

"Regarding the issue of reparation to those States and their peoples for the colonial past of the Portuguese State, it is important to emphasize that the current Government follows the same line as previous Governments. There was and there is no process or specific action program with that purpose", the Executive states in a press release from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

In the text, the Government emphasizes that "the Portuguese State, through its sovereign bodies - namely, the President of the Republic and the Government -, has had gestures and cooperation programs of recognition of the historical truth with impartiality and fairness".

The Executive begins by stating that "the relations of the Portuguese people with all the peoples of the States that were former colonies of Portugal are truly excellent, based on mutual respect and the sharing of common history".

"The same can be said of the institutional relations between States, as the commemorations of the fiftieth anniversary of April 25, 1974, clearly demonstrate", emphasizes the eight-point text.

After stating that it will act in the "same line" as previous Governments and that there is "no process or specific action program" with the purpose of colonial reparation, the Executive gives some examples of what it considers to be "gestures and cooperation programs of recognition of the historical truth with impartiality and fairness".

The line of the Portuguese Government is and will always be this: deepening of mutual relations, respect for historical truth and increasingly intense and close cooperation, based on the reconciliation of brotherly peoples

"This is understood, for example, as the assumption of the decisive contribution of the struggle of those peoples for their independence to the end of the dictatorship or the apology for the tragic massacre of Wyriamu", in Mozambique, it is pointed out.

On the other hand, it is stated that, "within the framework of cultural and historical cooperation, the Portuguese State financed, in Angola, the Museum of the National Liberation Struggle; in Cape Verde, the musealization of the Tarrafal concentration camp; in Mozambique, the recovery of the slave ramp on the Island of Mozambique".

"In addition to all this, there is the priority given to general cooperation policies and their materialization in such significant areas as education, training, language, culture or health promotion, in addition to financial, budgetary and economic cooperation", adds the text.

The press release from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers concludes that "the line of the Portuguese Government is and will always be this: deepening of mutual relations, respect for historical truth and increasingly intense and close cooperation, based on the reconciliation of brotherly peoples".

It should be recalled that the issue returned to the agenda this week through the voice of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who, on Tuesday, during a dinner with foreign correspondents, stated that Portugal must "assume full responsibility" for what it did during the colonial period and "pay the costs" and that deserved criticism from Chega, IL and CDS-PP.

This Saturday, on the sidelines of the inauguration of the National Museum of Resistance and Freedom, in Peniche, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was asked to clarify statements made on Tuesday, having reiterated that, throughout his presidency, he has defended that Portugal must "lead the process" in dialogue with those countries and repair the consequences of the period of colonialism and suggested as an example debt forgiveness, cooperation and financing.

"The question was whether I thought we should apologize. I said no. I have always thought that apologizing is an easy solution to the problem, you apologize and never talk about it again. You assume responsibility for what was bad and good in the empire", he told reporters.

Questioned by journalists, the President of the Republic also said that the current Government should continue with the process of surveying the heritage assets of the former colonies in Portugal, which had been initiated by the previous executive, in order to return them later.

"You cannot assume only the good or only the bad", he said, explaining that "assuming" means "removing the various consequences". "I spoke about the issue of goods. We do not have much real estate brought from the colonies, but it is a matter of knowing what there was", stressed the Head of State.

[News updated at 19:34]

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