The President of the Republic voted on Sunday in Faro, as on the 18th he will be at the Vatican to attend the inaugural Mass of the new Pope. “I couldn’t go back in time to vote for Celorico de Basto,” explains Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The President of the Republic goes to the Vatican to attend the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate, scheduled for May 18, the day of early legislative elections in Portugal, the journalists themselves told their own Sunday.
Speaking to journalists after having in Vila Real de Santo António, in the district of Faro, the head of state clarified that he had already planned to ask for early vote due to an invitation to a national reform meeting in the Algarve, which took place on Saturday night, but his idea was to vote for Celorico de Basto.
However, then, with the death of Pope Francis, the conclave and the election of the new Pope, he realized that he could not return from Rome in time to vote next Sunday, taking into account the delays that those ceremonies usually have.
“Made the accounts, and I received the program for three days [da cerimónia]I couldn’t go back in time to vote for Celorico de Basto. In good time, it is worth the person to keep [o voto antecipado]once it was useful, other times it was not. If the person does not need, vote on the day, if you need, use it. And therefore, here I came, “he said.
Marcelo went to the funeral of Francisco
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had already been in the Vatican to Pope Francis’ funeral at the end of April, together with the President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, and the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel.
The President of the Republic recalled that there are always delays on these occasions, and the ceremony is about an hour, the mass is usually an hour and a half -this “longer”, from 10:00 to near 13:00 -followed by the reception of over 100 countries.
In March 2013, the President of the Republic, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, headed the Portuguese delegation at the Pope Francis’ Enthrization Mass, in which was also the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Paulo Portas.
In April 2005, at the Pope Benedict XVI Entronization Mass, the Portuguese State was represented by Prime Minister José Sócrates and Presidency Minister Pedro Silva Pereira.
Weeks earlier, they had been in the funeral funeral funerals of John Paul II the President of the Republic, Jorge Sampaio, and the Foreign Minister, Diogo Freitas do Amaral.
