Where Portuguese politicians go on holidays

The main faces of national politics will be heading south or returning home for the summer holidays. Find out also which books they'll be packing.

LUSA/LUIS FORRA

With the summer in full swing and the Parliament on break, Portuguese politicians are going on holiday and they prefer national destinations.

The south of the country is the most popular destination, but there are also some who choose to return to their original homes.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, President of the Republic

The President of the Republic leaves in mid-August for the Algarve village of Monte Gordo, in the municipality of Vila Real de Santo António, but at the time of the questions sent by Lusa, he had not yet chosen the readings that will accompany him on this holiday.

José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, President of the National Assembly

The President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, has announced that he will be spending his holidays in the Algarve region, without specifying where. He has already chosen what he will be reading: Three books by international authors: ‘Submission’, by Michel Houellebecq, Alfaguara, ‘The Next 100 Years’, by George Friedman, D. Quixote, and ‘Trilogy - Vigil. The Dreams of Olav. Fadiga’, by the 2023 Nobel Prize for Literature winner Jon Fosse, from Cavalo de Ferro.

Luís Montenegro, Prime Minister

Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, has not yet revealed where he is going on holidays, but Espinho beach is usually his base, and he was recently spotted playing volleyball there.

Pedro Nuno Santos, Secretary-General of the Socialist Party

The PS Secretary-General will go on holiday at the end of this week and ‘will be visiting the Algarve’, said his adviser, who did not say whether Pedro Nuno Santos would be taking any reading with him.

André Ventura, President of Chega

The president of Chega will be in the Algarve. André Ventura will be on holiday between August 9-18, but he wouldn't say whether he would be reading during his break from political work.

Rui Rocha, President of the Liberal Initiative

The president of the Liberal Initiative, Rui Rocha, is one of the party leaders who prefers to rest in his childhood city. Rocha was born in Angola, but years later his family ended up settling in Braga - the city where he will be spending his holidays.

Rui Rocha will be reading the book ‘The end of Soviet man’, by the 2015 Nobel laureate for literature, Belarusian Svetlana Aleksiévitch, published in Portugal by Porto Editora. He also told Lusa that he wanted to update his reading of the Belgian comic book series Blake & Mortimer, by Edgar P. Jacobs.

Rui Tavares, Spokesperson for Livre

Also far from the big tourist centres will be Livre spokesman Rui Tavares, who is heading to his ‘ancestral village’, the Ribatejo village of Arrifana. On this holiday, he will continue reading Greek and Latin textbooks and basic grammars, a choice he justifies because he ‘didn't learn Greek and Latin at the right time’. The Livre spokesperson promises to ‘keep trying to improve’ in these two languages, considering that it's a good way to enjoy free time and that ‘that's what the summer holidays are for’.

Mariana Mortágua, Coordinator of the Left Bloc

The coordinator of the Left Bloc, Mariana Mortágua, is taking advantage of her holidays to spend time with her family, spending a few days in the Alentejo - the region where she is from. She is taking with her the book ‘Pedra e Sombra’ by the Turkish novelist Burhan Sönmez, published by Livros do Brasil.

Paulo Raimundo, Secretary-General of the Communist Party

Paulo Raimundo is travelling to the Alentejo coast and has chosen the book ‘Mil-homens’, Poética Edições, by the Portuguese author - and CDU list leader for the Viseu constituency in the last legislative elections - Alexandre Hoffman Castela.

Nuno Melo, Defence Minister and President of the Christian Democrats

Nuno Melo explained that the ‘pace of government and the problems inherited in the Ministry of National Defence will hardly allow a holiday in the classic sense of the term’, but that ‘if he has a few days’ he will go north to Moledo, in Minho, where he has spent his holidays since childhood. The Minister of Defence has chosen for this holiday the book ‘1821, o Regresso do Rei’ (1821, the Return of the King), by Armando Seixas Ferreira, who is currently the Ministry's press officer.

Inês Sousa Real, PAN spokesperson

The leader of PAN, Inês Sousa Real, will be holidaying on the Costa Vicentina and will be carrying the classic ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird, by Harper Lee, Relógio d'Água, and Margaret Atwood's recently adapted TV series, ‘The Handmaid's Tale’, Bertrand Editora.

Source: Lusa