President of the Republic: “It is hoped that it will not be necessary to resort to a state of emergency in the future”

The President of the Republic said that the state of emergency will no longer be renewed on 2 May. “It is hoped that it will not be necessary to resort to a state of emergency in the future, if it will be considered,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, at the end of the meeting with public health specialists.

“After the second phase, which corresponds to the month of April, which runs until the end of the state of emergency, ends, the third phase, which is to control the situation, cannot be seen as normal,” he said, adding that there will be “resumption” or “reopening by small steps”, a phase that “is no longer closing” but the use of “other instruments” to control the outbreak. “And so the state of emergency will cease to be in force on the 2nd midnight, “he declared.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stressed that in the new phase, the combination of “restraint is still important” as well as “control of the situation” and that is why his “constant evaluation” is also important. “This is the key to the success of the third phase,” he said.

In the fourth phase, he said, it is expected that there will be “the end of the outbreak as it was born”.

“The end of the state of emergency is not the end of the outbreak or the need for control,” he said, rejecting any “facilism”. “That is why each small step will be evaluated by experts and politicians,” he added.

Asked about the legal framework for the next phase, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa considered it “premature” to talk about this subject.