"I believe that the President of the Republic, I regret to say, has had a difficult week and therefore many aspects that have come into the public discussion are aspects that have no interest and are also out of time, out of context. This is one of them", Rui Rocha answered to the journalists when questioned about Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa's suggestion that Portugal has to make amends to the ex-colonies.

For the liberal leader, the reparation that needs to be done is "to the Portuguese who today face low wages, a poverty that has not been possible to overcome, the forced emigration especially in the case of our young people".

"[Portuguese] who look at all this and will ask: but what are the priorities of the President of the Republic when there are so many challenges in Portugal, so many issues to be resolved and the President of the Republic repeatedly places himself with these priorities that seem to me absolutely absurd", he criticized.

In Rui Rocha's opinion, "in the end, common sense will prevail", pointing out as positive the statement released this afternoon in which the Government assured that "there was not and is not in question any process or program of specific actions with the purpose" of reparation for the Portuguese colonial past and defended that it will follow "the same line" of previous executives.

"There are those who say that [the Prime Minister] is slow. I will not discuss now if he was fast or slow to react, but it seems to me that he reacted in the right direction", he emphasized.

The president of the IL presented as a hypothesis that Marcelo Rebelo is "feeling that the support he has been deserving from the Portuguese is diminishing" and may be seeking support "in fringes that are increasingly less representative of Portuguese society" or outside Portugal.

"One thing I am sure of: he is not reflecting in these proposals what has been his support base. I am sure of this because these are not the priorities of the Portuguese", he stressed.

The Government stated today that "there was not and is not in question any process or program of specific actions with the purpose" of reparation for the Portuguese colonial past and defended that it will follow "the same line" of previous executives.

"Regarding the issue of reparation to these 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 not and is not in question any process or program of specific actions with that purpose", says the executive, in a statement from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

In the text, the PSD/CDS-PP executive 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 exemption and impartiality".

The President of the Republic defended today that Portugal should lead the process of assuming and repairing the consequences of the period of colonialism and suggested as an example debt forgiveness, cooperation and financing.

Leia Também: Reparação a ex-colónias? "Não esteve e não está em causa nenhum processo" (Portuguese version)