The pretender to the Portuguese throne has sent a message to the people marking December 1st, the date that commemorates the Restoration of the Independence of Portugal.*
The would-be king Duarte Pio, the Duke of Bragança, today said there should be a cultural revolution as the Portuguese people are suffering from poor leadership.
The head of the Royal House referred to Portuguese justice that "has shown extraordinary proof of its independence, despite the terrible conditions that the judges have in which to do their job," he said.
His nobleness was referring of course to the recent arrest of public officials including the former Prime Minister José Sócrates, for tax fraud, money laundering and corruption, and the Golden Visa operation where the former president of the Institute of Registration and Notaries has been arrested as has the former national director of the Aliens and Borders Service, Manuel Jarmela Palos.
"At a time when the Portuguese are suffering the most serious consequences of many years of economically irresponsible and morally inappropriate policies, we need a 'cultural revolution'," said the Duke, adding that “ignorance and moral relativism** are the basis of our current crisis."
For Duarte Pio, "Portugal and the Portuguese are living through bitter days" because the country "does not behave as a free and independent country" and lists a number of problems such as unemployment, the role families are forced to play as "the State no longer reaches them," the need to emigrate, especially among the young and qualified, and the lack of confidence in institutions such as the courts and Parliament.
The Duke of Bragança also called on the Portuguese government for Portugal to help intervene "in defence of the victims of fanaticism in the Middle East."
Duarte Pio also is Prince of Brazil, Prince Royal of Portugal, Duke of Guimarães, Marquis of Vila Viçosa, Count of Ourém, Count of Arraiolos, Count of Neiva, and of course, the Count of Faria.
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Dukes in the post-monarchy era
After the foundation of the Portuguese Republic in 1910, the tradition of the heir to the throne being titled Duke of Bragança was revived by various pretenders to signify their claims to the throne.
In the last years of the deposed king Manuel II of Portugal, the dukedom of Bragança was claimed by Miguel, Duke of Bragança, son of the exiled king Miguel I of Portugal, who was living in the Austrian Empire. His branch of the Bragança family allegedly became heirs to the crown in 1932, when Manuel II died without children.
These Braganças were officially allowed to return to the country in 1950 and have lived there ever since.
Presently, the commonly acknowledged duke of Bragança and Portuguese heir is Duarte Pio of Bragança (born 1945).
Unlike other European republics (such as Greece) which attempt to prevent the presence of former royal houses in their lands, republican Portugal and its claimants to the throne have long been reconciled, a fact shown when among the guests at the wedding of Duarte Pio was the President of the Portuguese Republic and the country's prime minister.
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* The Portuguese Restoration War (Guerra da Restauração) was the name given by nineteenth-century 'romantic' historians to the war between Portugal and Spain that began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon (1668). The revolution of 1640 ended the sixty-year period rule of Portugal by the Spanish Habsburgs
** Moral relativism:
Moral relativism may be any of several philosophical positions concerned with the differences in moral judgments across different people and cultures.
Descriptive moral relativism holds only that some people do in fact disagree about what is moral; meta-ethical moral relativism holds that in such disagreements, nobody is objectively right or wrong; and normative moral relativism holds that because nobody is right or wrong, we ought to tolerate the behaviour of others even when we disagree about the morality of it.
Not all descriptive relativists adopt meta-ethical relativism, and moreover, not all meta-ethical relativists adopt normative relativism.
Moral relativism has been espoused, criticized, and debated for thousands of years, from ancient Greece and India to the present day, in diverse fields including philosophy, science, and religion.
