Marengo,
I can just translate it:
Dom Duarte Pio compares current crisis to that of the First Republic and asks for a referendum on monarchy
Duarte de Bragança considers the current crisis Portugal is facing is "comparable to the one lived in the days of the First Republic" and defends the solution would be for the country to return to monarchy, the reason why he insists on a referendum.
On a speech PÚBLICO had access to and that D. Duarte said early tonight at Convento do Beato for the celebrations od the Restoration of Independence, that will be marked tomorroy, December 1st, he remembers "the Republic, founded by force by taking over a democratic regime has never been legitimized through popular vote".
Also: the republican regime didn't have the "ability to solve any of the problems the monarchy was acused of" and it should be meaningful that "the more developed and stable democracies in Europe" are monarchies.
"The time has come for the society to freely state what state it wants", emphasized D. Duarte, that recurringly talks on the necessity of a referendum on the subject. And he points "polls that even refer 20, 30 ou 40% of monarchists, depending on how the questions are placed, percentages that are more important for resulting from the choice of free people and not on the propagandas from parties or shady movements". Therefore he believes the monarchists of today to be a minority, but that "they'll be the majority in the future ahead".
On a message of "cheer" to the portuguese, D. Duarte appeals: "Remember we had far graver moments in our history in which the perennial of the royal institution was the decisive support for the recovery attained. The dinasty, based in the family, offers the reference of continuity Portugal has been needing for a hundred years".
The "humiliating situation" of Portugal
In his speech D. Duarte reflects on the current economic and financial crisis, but also on its social and educational side. And, such as the President of the Republic has emphasized in several speeches in the past months, he considers the sea and lusophony target areas for "project with future" for Portugal and the countries within whe community of countries that have portuguese as an official language.
The head of the Royal House classifies as an "humiliating situation" the set in which Portugal currently is, and that that forces to "reflect on new models for economic development and life in society, inspired on charity". It is in this field he considers "desirable to boost the old traditions of volunteering" and mainly to use the "beneficiaries of State subsidies as a condition for the reception of said subsidies". "Receiving subsidies without a contribution to society equals receiving alms, and that isn't good", he points.
Another factor for the recovery of society, point D. Duarte, is education, its system should be rehtought, from kindergarden to higher education, "by adapting the degrees to the current and future professional needs", and by the creation of conditions so that the families with less resources can choose the schools for their children to enroll, without that implying an increase in the state's expenses.
"Today, it is in the sea and lusophony that our attention should be focused as target areas to realize a project with future for the country" and for CPLP, he says, following the same line of thought as the President of the Republic has been defending.
D. Duarte also leaves his express support to the consitution of a Federation of Lusophone States, in which the "adhesion wouldn't compromise the existing regional alliances" - and he exemplifies with the cas of the United Kingdom belonging to the Commonwealth and that it doesn't harm its participation in the European Union, but "envalues it".
