Sexist comments by Rebelo de Sousa

Several political parties in Portugal reacted on Sunday to the country’s president’s statement on Friday, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousaa story about a young woman’s cleavage during a visit to Canada that went viral this weekend.

The scene captured by television cameras took place in Toronto (Canada) Rebelo de Sousa took a walk in the Little Portugal neighborhood on Friday to meet members of the Portuguese community in the North American country.

At one point, the Portuguese president stopped to talk to a mother and daughter and said sarcastically: “The daughter is prettier than the mother. “Your daughter still catches a cold. Haven’t you seen what her cleavage looks like?”.

Video of that moment went viral, and protests have not stopped intensifying. Criticism of the Portuguese Head of State

74 years old.

One of the founders of the environmental party Livre, Ray Tavareshe said in a statement to the newspaper on Sunday people These comments do not represent the obligation of the President of the Republic “to defend the people’s right to self-government and self-government” Respect the choices of compatriots“.

He believed that Rebelo de Sousa’s words “ultimately put a fellow countryman in a difficult position.” Positions you did not select And it’s likely to be uncomfortable.

Portuguese reaction

For his part, the spokesman for the animalist party PAN said: Ines de Souza RealThinks the president should clarify whether his comments were “meaningless” and “stress the importance of this” These comments are not standardized“.

“We recently had Spain’s Rubiales Case and the Mobilization of the International Community” the spokesman recalled.

He continued: “We are not here to gauge the gravity of the situation, but the fact is, we cannot forget that we live in a Domestic violence and sieges are severe; Many times, innocuous remarks can be seen as legitimizing actions with other intentions.

De Sousa Real and Tavares react after appointment of General Secretary of the Socialist Party Isabel Moreira

Did this on Friday night on social network X (formerly Twitter).

“The concept is self-explanatory. It’s 2023. This is not a woman you don’t know who is being told a ‘joke’ about her weight. This is not a ‘joke’ about her cleavage. If you don’t understand, Who would tell you? That’s PR (short for Public Relations in English), learn. And apologize. Sexism kills us. This is not a joke,” Moreira concluded.

background

This is not the first time Rebelo de Sousa is the protagonist of such a controversy, having caused a stir last weekend due to some of his remarks during a visit to the Alentejo region, where he He offered his seat to a woman and asked, “Can the chair hold up?”.

Portuguese far-right party leader Chega Andre Ventura He also joined in the criticism of Rebelo de Sousa.

“If I were to comment on a woman’s cleavage in public, we would have received dozens of complaints at the ERC (Social Communications Regulator), the Attorney General’s Office and I don’t know how many associations and observatories on gender equality,” Ventura wrote on the X network on Saturday.

At the end of August, Rebelo de Sousa already caused controversy when he commented on the kiss incident between Luis Rubiales, the then president of the Spanish Football Federation, and a football player. Jennifer Hermoso,I’m sure It’s “a small problem” If compared to the war in Ukraine.