Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has warned of the risks of an extended pre-election period next year and does not want the electioneering to start too early.
Portugal’s President is concerned that, with the European elections just five months off, a period of political disruption will kick off and not stop as the national elections are to be held next autumn.
Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated on the day after Christmas Day. It originated in the United Kingdom, and is celebrated in a number of countries that previously formed part of the British Empire. Boxing Day is on 26 December, although the attached bank holiday or public holiday may take place either on that day or two days later.
In the early days of Christianity, boxes were placed in churches for charities and were opened on Christmas Day. The contents were distributed next day and called the "dole of the Christmas box," or the "box money."
Portugal’s Prime Minister, António Costa, delivered his Christmas message, saying that Portugal is much better but that he is under no illusion that there’s a long way to go.
The PM said that Portugal has turned the page of the most difficult years and is now better, but still has much work ahead, having to win "great challenges" over the country’s concerning demographic trends and the “exploitation of its territory.”
Every Christmas Day afternoon, Britain's reigning monarch delivers a television message to the Commonwealth, detailing the events of the last 12 months and wishes for the future. This usually lasts around 10 minutes.
There have been only three occasions when there was no message on radio or television; 1936 (due to Edward VIII’s abdication a few weeks before), 1938 and in 1969 when a written message was issued. This was because a special documentary film, 'Royal Family', had been made during the summer of 1969 and it therefore was decided not to broadcast at Christmas.
Portuguese national, Wilham Mendes, 25, died after being stabbed several times during a robbery on Saturday. His identity was revealed on Monday night.
Mendes, an amateur boxer, was attacked in a crowded alleyway on Saturday morning and was found shortly after one o'clock on December 22nd, at Albert Place, in Tottenham where he lived - he had several stab wounds.
In a Christmas Eve address that set the tone for Christmas, Pope Francis last night exhorted his flock to avoid the greed and materialism of Christmas and to focus on simplicity, charity and love.
The Pontiff celebrated Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, as is traditional, and this year lamented the poison of avarice greed that runs through human veins, “An insatiable greed marks all human history, even today, when paradoxically a few dine luxuriantly while all too many go without the daily bread needed to survive."
Pope Francis has urged people to overcome their religious and cultural differences and end conflict in Syria, Yemen and in other Middle East hot-spots.
Delivering his sixth Urbi et Orbi address to a crowd of 50,000 people in Saint Peter’s Square, the Pope said, “My wish for a happy Christmas is a wish for fraternity, all of us are brothers and sisters in humanity.”
Altice USA, owned by Altice Europe and the French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi - well known in Portugal since his purchase of Portugal Telecom in 2015 - has run into a ‘little local difficulty’ and is cited in a class action.
This legal move follows investigations to see whether Altice and certain of its officers and directors have engaged in securities fraud and other unlawful business practices.
