It is not yet 9:00 am. The typical traffic of returning to a workday after the previous day’s holiday (April 25) echoes in the ears. A few minutes before the scheduled time for the meeting (8.45 am), Rui Tavares, deputy and leader of Livre, arrives at Largo de Santos in Lisbon. Comes with the neighborhood bike (“I love terribly. I smell the river first thing in the morning, it’s amazing”), which you park at the relevant station. After the presentations, we will do the rest of the journey on foot.
The destination is the Assembly of the Republic, about ten minutes away, via Avenida D. Carlos I. In the middle we see Rui Tavares counting door numbers. For No. 111, which has a special meaning: “When my mother came from the village, she came here to this house to work as a maid. The bosses, incidentally, were rather salazaristic. Then my aunt came. Once, when everyone ate bread soup, the dog had egg bread and my aunt did not. She got upset and do you know what her boss told her?” “What?” I ask. “Don’t say that Bolshevik speech, look, I’m throwing her on the street,” he says laughing. , another meaning in that house: “It wasn’t until years later, after my mother told me she lived here, that I discovered it was also the building where Fernando Pessoa lived after one of his trips from South Africa,” something identified today with a plaque next to the entrance. Thus, two dimensions of Rui Tavares’ life intersect: politics and history.
In addition to being a deputy, Rui Tavares was also elected a councilor in the Lisbon Chamber, where he was not present due to conflicts between the two agendas.
When we arrive at Parliament, the first meeting of the day is already taking place (that of the board and coordinators of the Constitutional Revision Committee). Before Rui Tavares sees the room where the meeting is taking place, he is approached by an employee. He praises him for his speech the day before, at the solemn session on April 25, and asks him to send it. Then, before walking down the hall, he suggests, “The meeting is behind closed doors. Maybe we could meet in the staff bar?”
10:00 am
At the bar we drink coffee and read the newspapers. All, without exception, mark April 25. Rui Tavares later appears, holding a brown folder, which he puts on the table along with his mobile phone. Then go get an orange juice, a mixed snack and a coffee. make a briefing of the day, which is expected to be busy: “There is a leaders’ conference at 11 a.m., but I have to be at the Constitutional Affairs committee for that, I just wanted to go to the [comissão de] Budget and finance. After lunch I have a lecture at the Faculty of Law, I go back to the plenary session and end up with the Constitutional Review Committee.”
We enter room 4, the meeting starts when there is a quorum and less than fifteen minutes later we leave. Running is part of everyday life, says Rui Tavares. Still “it’s not the worst”. Through the more or less labyrinthine corridors, the deputy briefly passes the Senate chamber, where the Budget and Finance Committee has a seat. Through the middle, he meets members of other groups with whom he exchanges views: some praise him for his speech on 25 April; in another case, a deputy from the PSD (António Topa Gomes) talks to Rui Tavares about mobility to Parliament, as both use bicycles to get there (“António is more fanatical than me. I’m not much of an athlete” , says Rui Tavares). Jumping here and there, the morning ends with the Leaders’ Conference, which starts in a few minutes. Again, it happens behind closed doors. We are waiting for Rui Tavares at Passos Perdidos. After the meeting we are taken to the office.
another one was made briefing with cabinet members. From that arises what Rui Tavares and the other members of the cabinet jokingly call “parliamentary tarot”. Essentially, it is a game between the Deputy Sheriff, Isabel Mendes Lopes (Political Adviser), Tomás Cardoso Pereira (Chief of Staff), Pedro Mendonça (Press Adviser), and the Legal Advisers (Sofia Pinto Ribeiro and Marta Ramos). The idea is to try to find out which (and when) topics will be discussed, and where Livre may or may not participate with other parties.
12:30 p.m
“Let’s have a quick lunch and then we go to the faculty. We don’t have much time. You have a plenary session at 3 p.m., don’t forget that,” the advisor tells Rui Tavares. And lunch doesn’t take too long and there’s no time for coffee either. “We drank there at the university,” says the leader of Livre.
We continue by car, arrive and go directly to the auditorium. The promised coffee is canceled due to the crowds. But halfway we come across a second-hand bookshop, all for five euros. He picks up one about Natalia Correia, leafs through it and asks, “Is it the price on it?” Between the smiles comes the answer: “It’s cheaper for you”, he hears the saleswoman say. However, due to the rush between the lecture to the students and the presence in the plenary, the purchase has yet to be made.
We arrive in the opening minutes at the plenary session, Rui Tavares takes his seat and intervenes from the beginning, in a meeting devoted to discussing the stability programme.
5:30 PM
The plenary session ended around 6 pm, the start time of the Constitutional Revision Commission meeting. Despite its proximity, it does not prevent another “little jump”, to the Passos Manuel library, where Rui Tavares often visits. He brings a book he had at home (“I still have plenty, but I’m bringing them little by little,” he tells the librarian).
We enter the reading room, where Rui Tavares gives us a short history lesson about the collection there (including even a polyglot Bible, in Greek and Latin, which the deputy has already consulted). Do you come often? “Especially on Mondays, then I have less parliamentary work.” Come to work? “Read, work too. For example, the speech I gave at the suggestive session of the Constitution of 1822, I came here for a few days to read something on the subject to write the speech.”
We went back to the office, where we talked more slowly. “It could have been a much more complicated day. We were going to have an extra meeting, which didn’t happen,” says Rui Tavares. Despite the hustle and bustle of a single deputy sheriff’s days, the balance of this year and a half is “very good.” “We are finally taking part of the path we always said we wanted to go on. I believe there is room on the green left in Portugal. We are starting at the bottom, but we will gradually grow. It is growing on credibility. People are reacting very well,” said the deputy. Despite the positive balance, there is a negative factor: “When I was elected, I had to stop the Greek and Latin classes I was taking, much to my regret.”
The day ends late – around 9:30 pm – and ends as it began: cycling. “It’s the best time to do it,” concludes Rui Tavares.
Source: DN
