Yet again, Portugal’s President hits the note that politicians fail to reach. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa fills not one, but two shopping carts with food items for this weekend’s Food Bank collection while effortlessly coming up with the sort of soundbite that would sound insincere from anyone but himself.
“I have more obligation because I am privileged,” said our leader, while encouraging others to follow his example as an obligation, not as a favour.
The President spent €220 on products to give to the Food Bank against Hunger during its weekend promotional drive in supermarkets across the country. The charity is ably helped by 40,000 volunteers handing out bags and collecting food items donated by shoppers.
The President walked the aisles of the Continente supermarket in the Colombo Shopping Center and filled two food trolleys for the benefit of the poor and the camera’s of the press.
"I have more obligation because I am favoured, I am privileged, and anyone who is privileged has to give more," stated our President, shaming those who are able, but fail, to give while not making himself out to be ‘holier than thou,’ - and this is his gift.
A President who arranges for the press to watch him fill two shopping carts with beans, rice, tuna, sausages, pasta, potatoes, milk and water, while not appearing conceited, is a gift to the country from a statesman whose ‘man of the people’ style has not stopped short of criticizing the government when necessary.
The contrast between the President and the Prime Minister, António Costa, is notable. Costa’s perma-smile, once triggering feelings of comfort and trust, masks a politician lacking in empathy, especially at key moments, such as the 2017 fires that killed over 100 citizens and more recently at the quarry road collapse in Borba where his first reaction was to blame the local mayor.
The Head of State chatted as he shopped, "The idea is to get the attention of the Portuguese who can give a little help, which together is a great help for almost half a million people. We must start by reducing poverty and reducing the risk of poverty," said Rebelo de Sousa ,while effortlessly posing for around 50 ‘selfies’ with selected worshipers.
The head of the Food Bank against Hunger organisation, Isabel Jonet, warned on Friday that, "in the last two to three months the delivery teams on the ground had been under pressure with more people unable to cope with poverty due to unemployment and debt, "Let's hope it's transitory," she added.
Jonet is an optimist and expressed her conviction that the Portuguese public once again will support the food collection campaign this weekend, adding that 4% of the population now receives food support from the service.
See: Banco Alimentar Contra a Fome
Update: The weekend’s Food Bank collection saw 2,146 tons of food products collected at 2,000 supermarkets.
Speaking to Lusa, the president of the Food Bank, Isabel Jonet, said the campaign was, "fantastic."
The June 2018 collection saw 1,602 tonnes of food donated, down 243 tonnes from the previous June.
