The President of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, Luís Garcia, has congratulated the Azorean middle-school students who represented the Region at the National Session of the Parlamento dos Jovens program, held on May 11 and 12 at the Assembleia da República.

In telephone conversations with the teachers accompanying the participating delegations, the President of the Azorean Parliament praised the students for what he described as their “committed and responsible” representation of the Azores, highlighting both “the quality of their interventions and the interest demonstrated in the themes under debate.”

The Azorean delegation included students from the Escola Básica 1,2,3/JI/S/EA Tomás de Borba, Escola Secundária Vitorino Nemésio, Escola Básica 2,3/S Cardeal Costa Nunes, and Escola Básica 2,3/S Velas.

Luís Garcia also emphasized the essential role played by schools and educators in promoting civic participation among younger generations, stressing the importance of initiatives capable of bringing students closer to democratic values and public engagement.

“This initiative creates opportunities that bring young people closer to the values of democracy and civic participation,” he said.

This year’s edition of the Youth Parliament program was held under the theme “Financial Literacy: Young People Count!”, offering students an opportunity to experience democratic participation through elections, debates, committee work, and plenary sessions conducted first within schools, then at regional and district levels, and finally during the national session in Lisbon.

The Parlamento dos Jovens program, organized nationally in Portugal, seeks to promote democratic debate, encourage respect for differing opinions, strengthen civic awareness, and foster direct engagement between students and democratic institutions.

For the Azores — where questions of autonomy, participation, and citizenship remain deeply connected to island identity — the presence of young Azorean delegates in the national parliament carries a symbolic resonance beyond the educational sphere itself. It represents a new generation learning not only how democracy functions, but how the voices of smaller and more distant communities may also shape the broader civic conversation of the country.

In a time when democratic institutions across much of the world face skepticism and political fatigue, programs such as Parlamento dos Jovens continue to affirm the importance of listening, debating, and participating — teaching younger generations that democracy is not inherited automatically, but practiced, questioned, and renewed through engagement itself.

Translated and adapted from Press Release