This thing cannot be done based on enlightened despotism

Ao fazer o inventário da Google, verifiquei que estou internacionalmente inventariado nas fileiras dos militantes contra a Constituição Europeia, postura que, naturalmente, não rejeito:

Jose Adelino Maltez, a professor at ISCSP [Lisbon's Political and Social Sciences Institute] and former CDS leader, was more polemical. He cited professor Gomes Canotilho [law expert] to say that "the people would never understand the question [regardless of the wording]". He later admitted that he did not understand the question himself and concluded that the referendum was a fruitless exercise: "ultimately, one could be brave and do what Salazar [Portuguese dictator 1932-68] did in 1933 [referendum to constitution of "Estado Novo" or New State, an authoritative corporative state], by counting abstentions as favourable votes", he hurled at the audience. He then addressed the Socialist Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins - who had been given the role of defending the wording agreed in parliament - to say that "this thing (the process of European construction) cannot be done based on enlightened despotism".