The Minister for Foreign Action and European Union, Meritxell Serret i Aleu, is on an institutional visit to Lisbon to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, the historic event that brought freedom and democracy to Portugal, and to attend various political and institutional meetings.

Last Thursday, she opened the event“50 years since 25 April. Transformations and challenges of democracies”, co-organised by the Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation and the Delegation of the Government of Catalonia in Portugal, and she said that half a century after that revolution, and with the European elections of 9 June approaching, “we must be able to build broad-based majorities to tackle the extreme right-wing populism that is spreading throughout Europe, and which feeds discourses of hatred and xenophobia”.

“Today, more than ever, it is vital that we raise our voices to defend the European Union’s founding values: democracy, peace, human rights and human dignity; values that the Carnation Revolution also represents,” she added, with the conviction that in order to build a “more powerful” Europe, pro-European forces “must have greater influence and forge progressive alliances and narratives”.

The event included the presentation of the latest monographic issue of the journal IDEES: “Democracy under threat?From the Carnation Revolution to today’s challenges”, published by the Centre for Contemporary Studies in partnership with the Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation. The director of the Centre, Pau Mas, stressed that the journal “highlights and puts into perspective the events in Portugal of 50 years ago, but also reflects on the state of democracy today”. Given the deterioration of liberal democracies, “we must be extremely vigilant,” he said. The journal, which can be read in Catalan and English on the website revistaidees.cat, and which will also be presented in Barcelona in June, includes contributions from around twenty authors.

This was followed by a debate on the legacies of 25 April 1974 and the challenges facing today’s democracies with Member of the European Parliament Pedro Silva Pereira, journalist Teresa de Sousa, and researcher at the ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon Tiago Fernandes.

The discussion concluded an event hosted by the Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation, a non-profit institution created in 1991, which promotes democratic values and preserves and disseminates the historical memory and cultural heritage of contemporary Portugal. The President of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, Isabel Soares, and the Executive Director, Filipe Guimarães da Silva, also spoke at the event.

Strengthening cultural and political ties

The minister’s institutional visit to Lisbon began on Wednesday, at the Torre do Tombo National Archive, accompanied by the delegate of the Government of Catalonia to Portugal, Rui Reis. They were welcomed by the Director General for Books, Archives and Libraries of the Portuguese government, Silvestre Lacerda, with whom they viewed the exhibition “Days of April: one path, multiple voices”.

Last Thursday, before the event at the Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation, the Minister met the Secretary of State for Environment, Emídio Sousa, at the Ministry of the Environment and Energy. They discussed strategies for water management during periods of drought and the creation of the Mediterranean macroregion, which is a key objective for the Catalan Government. Serret also presented the international coalition of governments led by Catalonia to influence the global treaty against plastic pollution to the Secretary of State.

Later, she held a meeting with the President of the European Affairs Standing Committee, Telmo Faria, in the Assembly of the Republic. Serret and Faria discussed the need to approve the official status of Catalan in the European institutions in order to promote a democratic and culturally diverse Europe, and the priorities of the new era in Europe that will begin after the elections of 9 June.