The president of the republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said goodbye to the Cape Verdean town of Mindelo today with a sea bath, which he said was the last of his 73 years but did not help him pass the euthanasia diploma.
“It’s the last bath of my 73rd birthday, tomorrow I’ll be 74. I always take a bath on my birthday, every year or the day before, tomorrow I can’t, I’m far from the beach. Therefore, I would go there today take one, in Cascais, if I was in Portugal, even if it rained. So look, I’m going to take the plane now,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, after a second swim on the beach of Laginha , Mindelo, São Vicente Island, after a three day visit.
“Forty minutes, thirty minutes in the water, it was good. If it had been in Cascais, it would have been there in the rain for fifteen minutes,” he told reporters, after the dive and the usual “selfies” and conversations with Portuguese on that beach, where he arrived by taxi, next to the esplanade where he and the President of Cape Verde, José Maria Neves, saw Portugal’s defeat against Morocco (0-1) in the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup on Saturday.
Hosting the Portuguese team in Belém, he also said, is something to think about on their return to Lisbon this afternoon: “It’s an issue that will only be discussed after they get there,” he said.
When asked whether the last bath in Cape Verde helped him make decisions about the euthanasia diploma, approved in parliament, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa refused to answer.
“But that’s in a few days. I guess, I don’t know, I don’t like talking about these things here like that,” he shot.
On Friday evening, upon arrival in Mindelo, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa admitted that he will soon decide on the diploma decriminalizing euthanasia, approved in parliament, and said he had no doubts.
“It’s your doubt, it’s your question, what is your duty to ask. For me it’s not a question of doubt, I have to have a text and after the text I formulate my decision, and it won’t be long after that. I get the 16 [de dezembro] it could be this weekend, it is normal for it to be. I will receive the 19th, it will be one or two days later,” said the president, questioned by journalists on the sidelines of his visit to the Cape Verde island of São Vicente, in which he participated in the posthumous award of the honoris causa doctorate to Amílcar (1924-1973).
The possibility of a referendum on the decriminalization of euthanasia is a possibility that for Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, he said on Friday, is “obsolete”, given the decision of the parliament: “The news that I have just received is that , the final general vote by the Assembly of the Republic in plenary, that the meeting for the final formulation has already been scheduled, and that meeting is scheduled for next week, after which publication in the Official Journal of the Assembly of the Republic (… ) If there are no complaints, he will be in Belém by the end of next week, at the latest early next week”.
“If it’s not the 16th, it’s the 19th [de dezembro]🇧🇷 It is clear that it is not indifferent, for a simple reason: because it may or may not coincide with the fact that I am abroad and it is difficult to perform without having at least some time to receive the diploma, analyze it, make that decision (…) But if it’s not on the same day, then it’s as soon as I’m able to make the decision,” he added.
However, he did not clarify the meaning of that decision or the possibility of asking the Constitutional Court to review it again.
The decriminalization of medically assisted death was approved on Friday in a global final vote with votes from the majority of the PS, IL, BE, and some PAN and Livre deputies and six PSD parliamentarians, opposing the Chega parliamentary groups and the PCP and the majority of the Social Democratic bank.
The initiative is based on bills from the PS, IL, BE and PAN, and was approved on Wednesday after three delays in the specialty of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees.
The decree is now being finalized and has yet to be considered by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who can promulgate it, veto it or ask the Constitutional Court for a pre-emptive inspection of the text.
Source: DN
