VAT of bullfights? "MPs should consider what is important"

MArcelo Rebelo de Sousa was speaking at the end of an initiative of the Higher Institute of Economics and Management (ISEG) of Lisbon, in response to journalists, about the 39 approval by the Assembly of the Republic of the VAT reduction applied to bullfights, within the framework of the state budget by 2019.

To the question of whether he had a personal opinion on this subject, the head of state replied: "I have a personal opinion, but I do not want to express it, because I have not expressed any opinion on any question under consideration in Parliament ".

"The President of the Republic should not [uma opinião]. MEPs should know how to think, with rare means, what is really important and what is not so important, "he added.

Asked whether or not it is about a question of civilization, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied: "I will not give my opinion on this issue because it would be a means of 39, to intervene in the current debate in Parliament ".

Regarding the general content of the state budget for 2019, the President of the Republic said that he "will wait for the final version, in mid-December, the sooner the better" for to pronounce on the diploma.

"For the moment, the vote is still valid and will be concluded only by the final final vote, so I did not want to anticipate a judgment," he added.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa participated in a ceremony honoring the former student of this institution, António Patrício Gouveia, Chief of Staff of Prime Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro, to whom he posthumously awarded the rank of Grand Officer of the order of the D. Henrique infant, decoration that was given to the family.

The Order of the Infante D. Henrique distinguishes people who have rendered "relevant services in Portugal, at home and abroad, as well as services of expansion of Portuguese culture or knowledge of Portugal, its history and its values ​​".

António Patrício Gouveia, died on December 4, 1980 at the age of 70 in 2018, when the Cessna plane crashed, followed by Sá Carneiro, then prime minister, and the Minister of Defense , Adelino Amaro da Costa.

The former president of the Assembly of the Republic, Mota Amaral, the founder of the PSD, Francisco Pinto Balsemão, the Social Democrat leader Fernando Negrao and the president of the CDS-PP, Assunção Cristas, attended the ceremony.