"Extremism cannot justify changes to the critical view of history", the American historian Joan Scott, one of the guests at the meeting "Making history in times of conflicting political demands", which debates the role of historiography in current times, told Lusa today.

The specialist in women's history criticized the current political use of the discipline that is contaminating public opinion, with distorted views of reality.

"It should be critical analysis, which is always interpretative, looking at the past. But this view will always be affected by each person's vision" and "there is no absolute truth" about the history of a country, she explained.

The meeting, which began today and will last all week, brings together 250 researchers and historians to debate the challenges of historiography, in a context of disinformation and new protagonists who distort the past and recover myths.

An example of this are ancient monuments, built in different contexts, explained Hans Ruin, from Södertörn University (Sweden), which are now seen with a different perspective.

"We cannot say that we do not need monuments", but it is necessary that these dated constructions are now contextualized and explained, because each work is "a product of its time" and, "they do not always age well" with the values of contemporary society.

"Historians have to be more active in this public space", admitted Ruin.

In another panel, Wouter Reggers, from the University of Leuven (Belgium) explained that the colonial past still haunts his country, because of what happened in the Congo. But, despite this, "we have to take responsibility for the past" and, in the Belgian case, it is the "younger generations who are more committed to discussing and seeing what is possible to compensate" for the traumas of history.

"There has to be a sense of responsibility from the present towards history" and this is "also what historians must respond to", he explained.

In the Portuguese case, the recent controversy over the proposal for reparations made by the President of the Republic to the former colonies even led to a proposal to dismiss the head of state, something unprecedented in recent democracy.

Cristophe Araújo, from the University of Nanterre, Paris, praised the "boldness and daring" of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and recalled that this is a debate that is taking place in all European countries that were colonial powers.

"We need to be able to debate the problems, the impact that our history has on our present", said the researcher, who addressed, in the colloquium, the way in which Portuguese historiography in the 20th century was conditioned by the propaganda of the Estado Novo and how some historians of the opposition sought to study other themes, which deconstructed these myths.

"There was an imperial imaginary of a good colonization that lasted a long time", acknowledged Cristophe Araújo.

For the director of the Institute of Contemporary History of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and one of the organizers of the colloquium, Luís Trindade, the meeting aims to discuss how academia approaches historical research.

"We are in challenging times that we have to manage", because historians are "also scrutinized" by public opinion and by political agents on the subjects and the way they investigate.

"Discussing different approaches and having a critical view is our obligation and this meeting helps in that sense", he explained.

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