On Tuesday, parliament authorized the president of the republic to travel to Qatar on Thursday to attend the national football team’s first match at the 2022 World Cup.
The draft resolution presented by the President of the Assembly of the Republic was approved with votes for the PS, PSD and PCP banks, Chega abstained and IL, BE, PAN and Livre voted against.
PS deputies Isabel Moreira, Alexandra Leitão, Carla Miranda and Pedro Delgado Alves voted against this draft resolution, as did PSD deputies Hugo Carneiro, António Topa Gomes and Fátima Ramos and socialists Maria João Castro, Miguel Rodrigues and Eduardo Alves.
The parliamentary leader of the PS, Eurico Brilhante Dias, intervened after the vote and justified his bench’s favorable vote by stating that “parliament is not constituted to determine the political options for travel and international relations of the president of the republic”. endorse”.
“The way the Assembly of the Republic since 1976 (…) has interpreted this consent, this consent, is that the departure of His Excellency the President of the Republic from the national territory does not endanger the normal functioning of institutions and therefore, more than foreign policy or international reasons, they are issues of the functioning of the institutions,” he stressed.
In turn, the parliamentary leader of Chega, Pedro Pinto, underlined that his party decided to abstain because “Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is the president of the republic in Portuguese history who has traveled the most. He has increased the number of trips in relationship to Mário already tripled. Soares and Ramalho Eanes”.
Speaking to the Liberal Initiative, parliamentary leader Rodrigo Saraiva said his party believes that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa “is not allowed to travel to Qatar because this World Cup is being used by the Qatari regime as a geopolitical tool to establish international credibility that it does not have any”.
Left Bloc deputy José Soeiro defended that “no authority and no sovereign body should travel to Qatar represented in this world” and legitimize a regime that commits “repeated and shocking violations of human rights”.
PCP parliamentary leader Paula Santos stressed that her party “finds the exploitation of workers in Qatar unacceptable”, but understands that “the unequivocal expression of rights can take on different dimensions and does not have to go through boycotts to prevent sports participation by athletes or teams, nor the constitutional follow-up”.
For PAN, the only deputy Inês de Sousa Real stressed that Qatar does not respect human rights, women or the LGBTI community, which is why “her party could never accompany with a favorable vote the relocation of the President of the Republic to Qatar .”.
Livre’s sole deputy, Rui Tavares, criticized the fact that no party had condemned the “FIFA corruption”, insisting that by deciding to institutionally monitor the World Cup in Qatar, it is “compliant in a corrupt decision”, in an intervention that earned plaudits from Socialist deputies Alexandra Leitão and Isabel Moreira.
The President of the Republic cannot leave the national territory without the consent of the Assembly of the Republic, in accordance with the Constitution.
In the travel request, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa asks for permission from parliament to leave the country between Wednesday and Friday to watch the national team’s first match in Qatar, admitting that the trip may be via Cairo to part participate in a conference on the “Future of Quality Education” together with other Heads of State.
In the same letter to the President of Parliament, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa mentions that “the participation of the highest figures of the state in the matches of the national team had been agreed”, with plans to presence of the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, in the second game (November 28) and the Prime Minister, António Costa, in the third (December 2).
Last Thursday, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that “Qatar does not respect human rights” but asked to focus on the national team, statements that drew criticism from several parties.
“Qatar doesn’t respect human rights. All the stadium building and stuff… but hey, let’s forget about this. It’s reprehensible, but let’s focus on the team. We started really well and finished on a high” , said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at the end of the pre-season match between Portugal and Nigeria in Lisbon.
A day later, in Fátima, the head of state noted that he would attend the first game if parliament allowed it and assured that he intended to talk about human rights.
Also on Friday Prime Minister António Costa said that at the World Cup in Qatar, Portuguese political leaders will support the national team and not human rights violations or discrimination against women in that country.
“The world championship is there [no Qatar] and if we go there we will certainly not support the Qatari regime, the violation of human rights in Qatar and the discrimination against women in Qatar. If we go there, we will support the national team, the team of all Portuguese, the team that carries the flag,” he insisted.
News updated at 2:00 PM
Source: DN
