Facebook / PAN
The anti-bullfighting t-shirt worn by Sousa Real sparked controversy
Inês Sousa Real wore an anti-bullfighting t-shirt at a session of the Republic’s assembly. The situation raised a discussion about dress code for politicians and citizens attending debates.
In the same parliamentary session in which, a few weeks ago, Inês Sousa Real, from PAN, used a t-shirt with an anti-bullfighting message, Chega’s deputies took it to the AR pitchfork caps.
Last month, the president of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, asked firefighters who were in uniform attending a parliamentary debate to leave immediately of the galleries, remember the . Later, the president of the AR reinstated the firefighters.
These episodes have generated controversy in the AR: should, after all, deputies and citizens who attend debates have regulated clothing?
Speaking to Público, Sousa Real said that “it makes no sense to limit deputies’ objects or clothing. AR is not the fashion police. It’s a matter of common sense, respect, and freedom of expression.”
But not everyone seems to agree. The vice-president of the AssemblyMarcos Perestrellotold the same newspaper that “in Parliamentpolitical positions are taken by the use of the word. When you open the way to the use of clothes, banners, posters and other objects, it is difficult to stop.”
It is not the clothing itself that is at stake, says the PT deputy, but its “use as a reference and political manifestation”, he says, remembering an episode from the 90s, when a regionalization map and Alentejo deputies wore a rope around their neckssimulating a noose.
But few deputies agree to see their clothing regulated. Livre, completely disagreeing with Perestello’s deputy, says that “political messages” are welcome in everyone’s clothing.
But there are those who want freedom, with rules: the PSD deputy Hugo Soares believes that “there should be rules to avoid certain behaviors, such as posters against a Head of State [como o Chega fez contra Lula]objects on the counter or t-shirts with certain sayings”.
