Mortágua will propose rape as a public crime, a 4-day week and recognition of Palestine on the first day of Parliament

On the first day of the legislative session, the Left Bloc will present proposals to make rape a public crime, a four-day working week and the recognition of the State of Palestine.

According to Mariana Mortágua, at a press conference this Friday, these three bills are “priorities” for the party.

“We know, at a time when violence against women and sexual violence are on the rise, how important it is to respond to the outcry and the petition that brought together more than 100,000 people and that calls for rape to be made a public crime in Portugal,” said the BE coordinator and deputy, reiterating what she had already said during the election campaign.

Another of the Left Bloc's banners before the elections was the reduction of the working week from five to four days.

“Portugal is one of the countries where people work more for less pay. There have been some successful experiments with the four-day week, a pilot project that has yielded good results in terms of productivity and has been well received by both the companies that participated and the workers, and so this experiment should continue,” he explained.

Finally, Mariana Mortágua stressed that she will insist on the recognition of the State of Palestine.

“We even have recognition of a humanitarian crisis, of Israel’s attacks on civilians, and there is no reason why the Portuguese government and the Portuguese State should not recognize the State of Palestine. This is, first and foremost, an act of compliance with international law, but also a symbolic act that declares Portuguese support for the Palestinian people and Portuguese solidarity with the Palestinian people,” he stressed.

It should be noted that the results of the elections on May 18th meant a heavy defeat for the Left Bloc, which obtained around 155 thousand fewer votes than in 2024, going from five deputies to just one. Only Mariana Mortágua, head of the list for the Lisbon constituency, was elected.