"This is terrible for a country with Angola's history because the President conveyed some hope that he would do differently than his predecessor and he is doing worse in such a short time. This creates a situation, no longer of contestation, but of hatred", said Rafael Marques, speaking to the Lusa agency.
The journalist also accused João Lourenço of "having already given up on the Angolans", considering that "the petulant way in which he responds to criticism from society is generating a wave of hatred that can generate levels of intolerance", which "is not good for a country with a history of war, violence and misery like Angola".
"We need to walk with tolerance and solidarity so that we can solve the country's problems and give better living conditions to the populations because we have available resources", but the country has a President "who turns a deaf ear and who no longer pays attention even the serious living conditions in which the populations live", he said.
Angola has been experiencing a climate of protest, such as the protest, on 6 June, by taxi drivers and motorcycle taxi drivers, in the province of Huambo, against the end of the fuel subsidy, with clashes with the police resulting in at least five deaths and eight wounded.
Another demonstration, on the 17th of June, also against the rise in fuel prices and the end of street sales, was repressed with tear gas by the police, with several injured and detained.
For Rafael Marques, the issue of fuel "only increased inflation" and "worse the living conditions of the population", but it was a measure "that had to be taken at a certain time". However, the Government "was not careful to make the increase gradually and to make a parsimonious management of State resources".
According to the activist, Angola has an even more serious problem which is "practices in the management of the public purse of robbery, of stoning and not of containment" leading to the country being "moneyless", arguing that "social protest will grow" in a country where "there is no reduction in spending on government perks, there is no reduction in the excesses of the Presidency of the Republic itself so that an example can be set".
"This unilateral, unipersonal way of using the Constitution and power as if the country belonged to one man will only lead to the destruction of the President of the Republic", considered Rafael Marques, adding that currently "there are few" members of the Popular Movement of Liberation of Angola (MPLA) who defend their own president.
In this sense, he pointed out that "for the first time society is beginning to unite and reduce pressure to the will of a single man" and that, therefore, the President "has to be careful".
João Lourenço "is being a uniting factor, precisely because he presents himself as the main factor of destruction of the MPLA, which has been in power since independence", he concluded.
