Various political parties in Portugal reacted this Sunday to statements made on Friday by the president of the country, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousaabout him neckline of a young woman during a visit to canadawhich have gone viral this weekend.
The scene, captured by television camerasoccurred in Toronto Canada) on Friday when Rebelo de Sousa took a walk through the Little Portugal neighborhood to meet members of the Portuguese community in the North American country.
There was a point when the Portuguese president stopped chat with a mother and daughterand he said to them with sarcasm: “The daughter is prettier than the mother. Her daughter is still She’s going to catch the flu, haven’t you seen what her neckline is like??
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has become the center of a controversy on social networks. https://t.co/fPdHD9J3ap
— TVI Notícias (@tviultimas) September 16, 2023
Viralized video
The video of that moment has gone viral and the criticism against the 74-year-old Portuguese head of state has not stopped intensifying.
One of the founders of the environmental party Livre, Rui Tavaresexplained this Sunday in statements to the newspaper ‘Público’ that these comments do not represent the duty of a President of the Republic to “defend the right of people to their autonomy and to respect the elections of their fellow citizens.”
Tavares considers that, with his words, Rebelo de Sousa “ends up placing a fellow citizen in a position that she has not chosen and that is most likely uncomfortable“.
For her part, the spokesperson for the animal rights party PAN, Inês de Sousa Real, said that the president should clarify whether his comment was made “without malice” and “reinforce importance of not normalizing these comments.”
“We have recently had the Rubiales case in Spain and the international community mobilized,” the spokesperson recalled.
“We are not here to equate the seriousness of the situations – he continued – but the truth is that we cannot forget that we live in a world where there is a domestic violence and a siege that are quite accentuated, and where many times the words uttered without malice can be seen to legitimize behavior with other intentions.
De Sousa Real and Tavares reacted after the general secretary of the socialist party Isabel Moreira did so on Friday night on the social network X (former Twitter).
“The notion is self-explanatory. It’s 2023. This isn’t a woman you don’t know getting a ‘joke’ about her weight. It’s not a ‘joke’ about a neckline. Who has not understood this and is PR [siglas de relaciones públicas en inglés], learn. And she apologizes. Sexism kills us. It’s not funny“, Moreira has settled.
A noção explains – se . We are in 2023. This is not a woman who is not known for your doing a “piada”; about its weight. Don’t make a “piada” about a décote. Quem ainda no percebeu isto e é PR, learn . E peça apologies. Or sexism is behind us. Não temp piada.
— Isabel Moreira (@IsabelLMMoreira) September 15, 2023
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It is not the first time that Rebelo de Sousa has been involved in a controversy of this type, since last weekend some of his words during a visit to the Alentejo region when he offered a seat to a woman and asked, “Will the chair hold?”
At the end of August, Rebelo de Sousa already caused controversy when commenting on the case of the kiss of the then president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, to the soccer player Jennifer Hermoso, he stated that it was “a minor issue” if compared to the war in Ukraine.