Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation project funded by the European programme Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values

The Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation has seen the FREI (From Resistance to European Integration) project funded by the European Commission under the CERV (Citizenship, Equality, Rights and Values) programme, in the European Memory strand.

With a duration of 24 months and scheduled to start in the first half of 2025, the project brings together partners from five countries (Italy, Austria, Greece, Portugal and Romania) and aims to explore the historical transitions from totalitarianism to democracy, highlighting human rights and European integration.

The project will involve young people between the ages of 18 and 29, who, with the support of experts, protagonists and witnesses and representatives of vulnerable groups, will debate and analyse national paths to democracy, based on the following themes:

• Romania (Timișoara): City of Revolution, with a focus on anti-Gypsyism.
• Austria: Liberation from the Nazi regime and antisemitism in the past and present.
• Greece: End of the Colonels' regime, democratisation during the Cold War, xenophobia and migration.
• Portugal: Carnation Revolution, colonialism and post-colonialism.
• Italy: Liberation, role as a founding member of the EU, and new ideas for Europe, including the Ventotene Manifesto and the impact of propaganda and fake news on democracy.
  

Transnational meetings will be organised to explore the complexity and heterogeneity of European history, highlighting the common struggle for democracy and human rights. The Foundation will lead the activities in Portugal, organising two events, in Lisbon and Leiria, in 2025 and 2026.