Referia o DN de sábado que a Presidência da República emprega agora 500 pessoas.
Numa recente publicação, é referido que o Palácio de Buckingham emprega 300.
Ou será antes a eterna questão de os serviços públicos em Portugal empregarem muito mais gente do aquela que realmente necessitam, pagos por todos nós?
No mesmo trabalho de investigação, referia-se que o orçamento da Casa Real Britânica era de 46,6 milhões de euros e o da casa republicana de Portugal era de 16 milhões. Aparentemente, a Monarquia é mais dispendiosa. Errado. Se dividirmos 46,6 milhões por cerca de 50 milhões de ingleses, dá bastante menos (0,93 €) que 16 milhões por dez milhões de portugueses (1,6 €).
Neste mesmo raciocínio, o melhor é nem referir o exemplo de Espanha. Com metade do orçamento, o Rei é antes um enorme investimento em vez de um enorme custo que rerepresenta o nosso Presidente”.
in Diário de Notícias e http://realfamiliaportuguesa.blogspot.com/
terça-feira, 24 de maio de 2011
quarta-feira, 18 de maio de 2011
Alberto do Mónaco convidou 4000 pessoas para a boda
Cerca de 4000 convidados assistirão lado a lado ao casamento do príncipe Alberto do Mónaco. O gabinete de Turismo do principado divulgou ontem o número de presenças que assistirão, a 2 de Julho, ao casamento religioso do monarca com a namorada.
Michel Bouquier, responsável pelo turismo do Mónaco, revelou ainda que os noivos irão passar a lua-de-mel no país natal de Charlene Wittstock. Será também nessa altura que acontecerá a terceira festa do casamento, para familiares e amigos da futura princesa monegasca.
Ao invés do que aconteceu por ocasião do casamento do príncipe William com Kate Middleton, no Mónaco não estarão à venda os tradicionais souvenirs com os rostos dos príncipes. O palácio optou por estabelecer contratos publicitários com a Montblanc (marca da caneta com a qual os noivos assinarão o livro de honra do palácio) e a Lexus (fabricante automóvel que produziu o carro híbrido no qual os noivos se deslocarão durante o cortejo nupcial).
segunda-feira, 2 de maio de 2011
A República tão cedo não chega à Austrália
Festas na Austrália celebram casamento real inglês. Uma grande tela em Sydney transmitiu o casamento do príncipe William e Kate Middleton ao vivo, como se fosse um grande evento desportivo, com “convidados” nativos saudados por uma sósia da Rainha Elizabeth e acomodados em cadeiras especiais para a ocasião.
Numa das casas nocturnas mais populares de Sydney, a Ivy ballroom, a Câmara de Comércio Britânico-Australiana organizou um coquetel de casamento de alto nível a 218 dólares por pessoa.
A alguns quarteirões de distância, os gays e lésbicas da cidade fizeram uma festa de casamento homossexual, na qual os convidados desfrutaram fatias de um bolo gigantesco feito pela Gaycakes (bolos gays em tradução livre) e ganharam uma bolsa de casamento de brinde que incluía um livreto sobre casamentos de pessoas do mesmo sexo.
“Neste dia feliz no qual os australianos comemoram o casamento real, muitos australianos compartilham a aspiração de um dia se casarem com seu próprio ‘príncipe’ ou sua própria ‘princesa’, incluindo muitos gays e muitas lésbicas australianos”, disse Alex Greenwich, chefe da Igualdade de Casamento na Austrália.
Em lares suburbanos, “princesas australianas” trajando tiaras de plástico e vestidos de casamento deram festas enquanto assistiam os preparativos do casamento.
“Quero ver se William chora quando Kate chegar ao altar, e como é o vestido”, disse Ryle Martin, 24 anos e natural de Sydney, envergando uma tiara prateada reluzente com a palavra Princesa.
“Todos os nossos namorados decidiram ir para o futebol.”
O hotel Royal Mail de Melbourne ofereceu pudim Yorkshire e gin e tónica a seus “convidados de casamento”, e o The Royal Bar de Sydney servia canecas do “Casamento Real” de Pimms, bebida famosa entre os britânicos.
Pizzarias escalaram mão de obra e entregadores extra para dar conta do aumento de vendas na noite de sexta-feira. Uma delas espera fazer 200 mil pizzas – 40 mil a mais do que em uma sexta-feira comum.
Clubes australianos, como as ex-militares Ligas de Serviços de Retorno, tradicionalmente um ninho de monárquicos, disseram esperar que o evento de casamento seja o mais movimentado do ano.
“A febre do Casamento Real está dominando os clubes”, disse Anthony Ball, chefe do ClubsNSW. “A maioria dos clubes está transmitindo ao vivo e encorajou os membros a vestir-se para a ocasião.”
terça-feira, 26 de abril de 2011
Embaixador é o único português no casamento real
O diplomata foi convidado na qualidade de representante de Portugal mas, à semelhança de outros embaixadores estrangeiros, não tem direito a acompanhante.
Apesar de o casamento não ter honras de estado, o acontecimento é considerado um acto semi-oficial, para o qual foram convidados governadores gerais e chefes de governo dos países da Commonwealth onde Isabel II é monarca.
Entre estes está um descendente de madeirenses, Ralph Gonsalves, primeiro-ministro de São Vicente e Grenadina. Este grupo ficará sentado juntamente com amigos dos noivos.
Na cerimónia estarão vários convidados com o apelido Lopes, incluindo uma das crianças pajem do noivo, Eliza Lopes, de três anos. Neta da Duquesa da Cornualha, Camilla, atual mulher do príncipe Carlos, é filha de Laura Parker Bowles e Harry Lopes. Este é um nobre britânico descendente de uma família de judeus sefarditas portugueses que se instalaram no Reino Unido há vários séculos.
quarta-feira, 30 de março de 2011
D.Duarte e D.Isabel no Banquete em honra do Príncipe de Gales e da Duquesa da Cornualha
Por ocasião da Visita Oficial a Portugal do Príncipe de Gales e da Duquesa da Cornualha, o Presidente da República e a Dr.ª Maria Cavaco Silva ofereceram em sua honra um banquete no Palácio Nacional de Queluz, no início do qual o Presidente Aníbal Cavaco Silva e o Príncipe de Gales proferiram discursos.
SAR Dom Duarte de Bragança esteve na mesma mesa de Cavaco Silva e Príncipe Carlos.
terça-feira, 29 de março de 2011
Na visita a Portugal, que constitui a primeira etapa de uma deslocação que os levará ainda a Espanha e Marrocos, as relações comerciais, as energias renováveis e o mar são temas em destaque, segundo a embaixada britânica em Lisboa.
O príncipe Carlos tem prevista uma visita à empresa especializada em vegetais frescos Vitacress Portugal, em Alcochete, seguindo depois para Évora, para conhecer projetos de energias renováveis naquela cidade.
Do programa para hoje constam também uma visita ao Clube Naval de Cascais, onde o príncipe de Gales e a duquesa da Cornualha assistirão a uma regata de vela adaptada, para pessoas portadoras de deficiência e uma passagem pelo Parque de Monserrate, em Sintra.
Uma cerimónia de entrega de prémios a empresas portuguesas que investiram no Reino Unido no último ano fiscal e a comemoração do 100.º aniversário da Câmara de Comércio Luso-Britânica faz ainda parte do programa.
segunda-feira, 28 de março de 2011
Portugal needs its sleeping king now more than ever
José Manuel Fernandes
guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 March 2011
The discussions had barely started on Wednesday night when the then prime minister, José Sócrates, made an abrupt exit from a crucial meeting at the Portuguese parliament, running down the stairs of the building in order to escape the reporters waiting for him at the bottom. Like everyone else in the country, the press had wanted to know why he was so disrespectful towards the representatives of the nation. The TV images of this hasty escape have already become iconic: after having his austerity package rejected, Sócrates soon announced his resignation, plunging Portugal – and Europe – deep into political crisis.
On the streets, Sócrates’s resignation was greeted with a sigh of relief. For many, the prime minister has come to embody the ills of our country and the sins of our political leaders. On 12 March, Portugal saw the largest national demonstrations in decades, when a Facebook appeal led to hundreds of thousands of people marching peacefully in Lisbon and Porto against rising unemployment and the shrinking of wages and pensions. There’s a distinct feeling of hopelessness in the air: never before has Portugal had so many unemployed. People have been leaving the country in droves, and as usual it is those we need most, the young with the best qualifications, who are at the front of the queue.
The national debt is at its highest in more than a century. The last time the country saw anything resembling economic growth was back in 2000. Everywhere there is a fear that, after a lost decade, there might come yet another. Portugal appears to be undergoing a process of economic decay. Many worry that the country will fail in its ambition to catch up with the most developed nations in Europe.
Deep down, Portugal feels it has been playing catch-up for the last two centuries. After the loss of Brazil in 1820, and the failure to follow up on the promise of the industrial revolution, intellectuals began to speak of an “under-developed” Portugal – to contrast with the developed country of the previous centuries. It was around the same time that we saw the rise of “Sebastianismo” in Portuguese culture – that is, the longing for the reawakening of a national saviour figure, as the last ruler of the “golden dynasty”, King Sebastian, had been, a sentiment kept alive by writers such as the 20th-century poet Fernando Pessoa.
For a while it looked as if the sleeping king had indeed returned. After entering the European union in 1986, several years of strong economic growth created a vision of a new and developed Portugal. That turned out to be an illusion.
Sócrates never promised to be anything like a new King Sebastian – the WikiLeaks cables paint a portrait of a leader who doesn’t like sharing power and hates negotiations. But he appeared to many at least a more pleasant option than his opponents. In the 2009 election campaign, Sócrates’s Socialist party faced a centre-right PSD party headed by an ex-finance minister known for her austerity measures, and had accordingly based their campaign on promises of increased public spending. It worked, but only just: Portugal entered the sovereign debt crisis with the only minority government in Europe.
The dust of the electoral fray had hardly settled when the Portuguese were confronted with a reality quite different from the one presented by Sócrates. The 2009 budget deficit, reported to Brussels in September as 5.6%, turned out to be 9.3%. Political moves such as the Socialist party’s decision to increase public servants’ pay and benefits had backfired.
In 2010 the government was forced to implement measures contrary to the populist promises made in the election campaign. The country endured the failure of successive plans for stability and growth, each time overtaken by a darker reality than that recognised by Sócrates. Offers of collaboration from the opposition were shunned – the picture that emerged was of a politician who is only satisfied when he sees his opponents kneeling in surrender.
The final straw came when the government was forced, after a technical visit to Portugal by the European commission and the Central Bank committee, to introduce new austerity measures. Relations had deteriorated beyond repair, not just between Sócrates and the current PSD leader, Pedro Passos Coelho, but also between prime minister, parliament and the president of the republic.
The Portuguese now live in a climate of decaying politics and growing disregard for the rules of democracy. Not only did half the voters abstain in the presidential elections in January, a serious flaw in the registration system also meant that thousands who wanted to vote couldn’t. No single politician has claimed responsibility for this. This month the press revealed the payment of €72,000 in extra fees to a minister’s wife against the advice of the civil service. Again, no one resigned.
Now the more obvious historical parallel is not the golden era, but 1890, when Portugal became the first European country to go bankrupt. As every Portuguese citizen knows, the political turmoil that followed only came to an end in 1926, with a military coup and the rise of António de Oliveira Salazar’s far-right party.
guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 March 2011
The discussions had barely started on Wednesday night when the then prime minister, José Sócrates, made an abrupt exit from a crucial meeting at the Portuguese parliament, running down the stairs of the building in order to escape the reporters waiting for him at the bottom. Like everyone else in the country, the press had wanted to know why he was so disrespectful towards the representatives of the nation. The TV images of this hasty escape have already become iconic: after having his austerity package rejected, Sócrates soon announced his resignation, plunging Portugal – and Europe – deep into political crisis.
On the streets, Sócrates’s resignation was greeted with a sigh of relief. For many, the prime minister has come to embody the ills of our country and the sins of our political leaders. On 12 March, Portugal saw the largest national demonstrations in decades, when a Facebook appeal led to hundreds of thousands of people marching peacefully in Lisbon and Porto against rising unemployment and the shrinking of wages and pensions. There’s a distinct feeling of hopelessness in the air: never before has Portugal had so many unemployed. People have been leaving the country in droves, and as usual it is those we need most, the young with the best qualifications, who are at the front of the queue.
The national debt is at its highest in more than a century. The last time the country saw anything resembling economic growth was back in 2000. Everywhere there is a fear that, after a lost decade, there might come yet another. Portugal appears to be undergoing a process of economic decay. Many worry that the country will fail in its ambition to catch up with the most developed nations in Europe.
Deep down, Portugal feels it has been playing catch-up for the last two centuries. After the loss of Brazil in 1820, and the failure to follow up on the promise of the industrial revolution, intellectuals began to speak of an “under-developed” Portugal – to contrast with the developed country of the previous centuries. It was around the same time that we saw the rise of “Sebastianismo” in Portuguese culture – that is, the longing for the reawakening of a national saviour figure, as the last ruler of the “golden dynasty”, King Sebastian, had been, a sentiment kept alive by writers such as the 20th-century poet Fernando Pessoa.
For a while it looked as if the sleeping king had indeed returned. After entering the European union in 1986, several years of strong economic growth created a vision of a new and developed Portugal. That turned out to be an illusion.
Sócrates never promised to be anything like a new King Sebastian – the WikiLeaks cables paint a portrait of a leader who doesn’t like sharing power and hates negotiations. But he appeared to many at least a more pleasant option than his opponents. In the 2009 election campaign, Sócrates’s Socialist party faced a centre-right PSD party headed by an ex-finance minister known for her austerity measures, and had accordingly based their campaign on promises of increased public spending. It worked, but only just: Portugal entered the sovereign debt crisis with the only minority government in Europe.
The dust of the electoral fray had hardly settled when the Portuguese were confronted with a reality quite different from the one presented by Sócrates. The 2009 budget deficit, reported to Brussels in September as 5.6%, turned out to be 9.3%. Political moves such as the Socialist party’s decision to increase public servants’ pay and benefits had backfired.
In 2010 the government was forced to implement measures contrary to the populist promises made in the election campaign. The country endured the failure of successive plans for stability and growth, each time overtaken by a darker reality than that recognised by Sócrates. Offers of collaboration from the opposition were shunned – the picture that emerged was of a politician who is only satisfied when he sees his opponents kneeling in surrender.
The final straw came when the government was forced, after a technical visit to Portugal by the European commission and the Central Bank committee, to introduce new austerity measures. Relations had deteriorated beyond repair, not just between Sócrates and the current PSD leader, Pedro Passos Coelho, but also between prime minister, parliament and the president of the republic.
The Portuguese now live in a climate of decaying politics and growing disregard for the rules of democracy. Not only did half the voters abstain in the presidential elections in January, a serious flaw in the registration system also meant that thousands who wanted to vote couldn’t. No single politician has claimed responsibility for this. This month the press revealed the payment of €72,000 in extra fees to a minister’s wife against the advice of the civil service. Again, no one resigned.
Now the more obvious historical parallel is not the golden era, but 1890, when Portugal became the first European country to go bankrupt. As every Portuguese citizen knows, the political turmoil that followed only came to an end in 1926, with a military coup and the rise of António de Oliveira Salazar’s far-right party.
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