Portuguese president urges calm, restraint over ongoing criminal investigations

RDP Antena 1 radio, Lisbon

[Presenter] During a tour of the Coimbra district, and never expressly mentioning the controversy over the Casa Pia case [ongoing investigation into an alleged paedophilia ring at Portugal's largest boys' home, in Lisbon], President Jorge Sampaio today appealed for calm and confidence in the country's institutions:

[Sampaio] The difficulties Portugal is presently experiencing, whether they be economic or of another nature, demand of all of us an unusual calm and a vote of confidence in the institutions. We must not express distrust in the institutions, in the sovereign bodies as a whole: the president of the republic, the parliament, the government, the MPs, the courts and the investigations. We must remain reassured that they are working efficiently and in conformity with the rules. And we must, above all, analyse the facts with calm, hence my appeal for the restraint of the Portuguese media, especially in cases which affect the rights of individuals, their name and reputation; we must clearly understand that such cases call for discretion and calm as to avoid destroying each other and each other's lives, because we must not forget we are a country with 800 years of history, with institutions and a democracy that wants to work.