Lisbon, 09 March 2021 (Lusa) – Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa takes office today for a second term as President of the Republic, at 10:30 am, before parliament, with reduced assistance due to the covid-19, and in the afternoon he will be in Porto.

Reelected in the presidential elections of January 24 with 60.67% of the votes cast, the retired professor of law, 72, former constituent deputy, will take the oath on the original of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic.

Under the terms of the Constitution, the elected President of the Republic takes office before the parliament, making the following declaration of commitment: “I swear on my honor to faithfully perform the functions in which I am invested and to defend, comply and enforce the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic”.

The inauguration and oath ceremony in the Assembly of the Republic will have an assistance in the Sala das Sessions reduced to less than one hundred people, with 50 of the 230 deputies, six members of the Government and the guests limited to the highest precedence of the Protocol of the Portuguese State.

After reading and signing the inauguration document, the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, will speak to greet the head of State, and then Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will make the first speech of his second term.

From São Bento, the President of the Republic will proceed to the Jerónimos Monastery, in Lisbon, where he will deposit wreaths of flowers on the tombs of Luís de Camões and Vasco da Gama.

Arrival at the Palace of Belém, with an honor guard at the main gate, is scheduled for 12:15 pm. In the Sala das Bicas, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will receive the band of the three orders, symbol of the President of the Republic and grand master of the Portuguese honorary orders.

During the afternoon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will be in Porto, where he will have a meeting with the Mayor of the City, Rui Moreira, at 2:30 pm, before presiding over an ecumenical ceremony with representatives of various religious denominations present in Portugal, in the Hall Noble of the Town Hall, at 15:30.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will also visit the Islamic Cultural Center of Porto, at 16:30, before returning to Lisbon.

When he took office as President of the Republic five years ago, on March 9, 2016, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa arrived on foot at the Assembly of the Republic, breaking the protocol.

The program of his inauguration had an original format, which lasted throughout the day, including an ecumenical meeting at the Lisbon Mosque and a concert at Praça do Município – and at the time it also extended to Porto, but two days later, with visits to the City Hall, the Cerco neighborhood and an exhibition.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced his re-election to the post of President of the Republic on December 7 of last year, alone, in a pastry shop next to the Palace of Belém, in Lisbon, space where his campaign headquarters was held in the 2016 presidential elections.

In the current pandemic situation of covid-19, and with the country in a state of emergency, he declared that he would never leave in the middle of this “demanding and painful journey” and that he was “exactly the same as he advanced five years ago”, committed to stabilize and unite the Portuguese to overcome the current crisis.

His re-application was formally supported by PSD and CDS-PP, while the PS in the Government chose not to support any candidate, but approved a motion with a “positive assessment” of his first term.

During the campaign for the January 24 presidential election, the former PSD president said in an interview with TVI that he expected a “more difficult” second term, identifying “more dispersion” in the party system, both on the left and on the right.

In his victory speech on the electoral night, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa affirmed “having the notion that the Portuguese, when reinforcing their vote, want more and better” in proximity, stability, demand, adding: “I understood this sign and I will remove it the appropriate lessons “.