Ferro Rodriguez said today that the “greatest honor” of his life was “to be President of the Assembly of the Republic”, assuring that “in the end, a politician will never give up politics.”

Last week, Ferro Rodriguez told the leaders of the various parliamentary benches that he would not run again for the PS lists in the next legislative elections.

This Friday, assuming that this is the last plenary meeting of the Assembly of the Republic of the XIV Legislative Assembly and the last that it presides over – considering that after the dissolution of parliament, meetings of the Standing Committee will still be held. early December – Ferro Rodriguez addressed the MPs with a few words at the end of the meeting.

“Farewell words, my goodbyes to parliamentary activity, to the full functioning of the Assembly of the Republic, almost four decades after I arrived here in 1986, and here I performed a variety of functions – as a deputy, leader of parliament, vice-president and what was and remains the greatest honor of my life: to be President of the Assembly of the Republicto be the president of every deputy, ”he stressed.

First, Ferro highlighted the “special circumstances” that led to his first election in October 2015, when the IP came second in the elections to form a government, and the strengthening of the voting results in 2019. ” by the fact that they were president at an exceptional time, when democracy and its institutions were often attacked – which has not been observed for a long time – from many different sides, against women MPs and MPs seeking to condition their actions and their mandate, which, let’s never forget, is the result of the free decision of our citizens, expressed by voting, ”he stressed.

Ferro Rodrigues also drew attention to the “unexpected pandemic crisis” that changed the functioning of the Assembly of the Republic, “the sovereign body called upon to authorize the first state of emergency of a democracy.” “Even during the pandemic, democracy was not suspended and its home, the Assembly of the Republic, never closed its doors, declaring its presence and seeing that the irreplaceable role it plays in a democratic political system is strengthened for a long time,” he stressed …

Ferro believed that the parliamentary institution could also have been strengthened over the past six years, recalling that “it is not enough for parliament to pass laws or occasionally become the arena of important political debate.” “Parliament needs to know how to provide information about its activities and the activities of its deputies, thereby closing the circle of representation,” he said.

At the end of his speech, he recalled that in 2015, in his first election, he quoted Fernando Pesoa and his Book of Concern: “We all live in this world aboard a ship that leaves a port that we do not know about. about the port we are ignoring; we must show kindness to each other in order to travel. “” Coming to an end two years earlier than we expected – than we all imagined – it was a long journey, with many joys, not without less happy episodes, even sad ones. ” he said, highlighting the death of “great friends and statesmen.”

Despite “some storms” on this trip, the speaker of parliament assured that politics will remain a part of his life. “Because, in fact, a politician never completely leaves politics. And I will still remain on the first line of defense of democracy and freedom, ”he assured.

Saying that he has “lessons” for everyone, Ferro Rodriguez said goodbye and thanked all the MPs “from all kinds of political circles” for their contributions to the democratic debate. “With a strong, respected parliament, there will be better conditions to help Portugal – that is, the Portuguese and the Portuguese who are represented here – in solving and overcoming the many and increasingly difficult problems that, as a nation and as a people, we face each other. Many thanks to everyone without exception, ”he said.