Parliament approves removal of parliamentary immunity from PAN leader

This Friday, the Assembly of the Republic approved the removal of parliamentary immunity from the sole deputy and spokesman of the PAN, so that Ines de Souza Real will answer in court in a claim of alleged defamation.

The opinion of the Committee on Transparency and the Statute of Deputies, approved at the committee meeting on Tuesday, is “in the sense that it authorizes the removal of parliamentary immunity from Ms. Paula Ines Alves de Sousa Real” as a defendant in the investigation, which is ongoing in the Judicial Court Mosquitoes of Evora.

The removal of parliamentary immunity from a deputy (who chose not to participate in the vote) was approved by voting for the PS, Chega, Liberal Initiative, PKP, BE and Livre, and voting against the PSD.

In a note sent to the Lusa news agency, the PAN leader refers to her parliamentary immunity being lifted “following an alleged defamation trial on July 6, 2020 in the TVI Jornal da Noite, which states that veterinarian Joaquim Grave, despite advocating bullfighting, in admits in his doctoral dissertations that the bull suffers.

Inés de Souza Real refers to “in an interview and debate with Miguel Souza Tavares” she stated that veterinarian and bullfighting entrepreneur Joaquim Grave “has several doctoral theses and also supervised several dissertations in which he himself admits not only that the bull suffers, but he also recognizes that the bull is only investing because he has no way to escape”, and believes that “even those who advocate the preservation of bullfighting actually have the intellectual honesty to admit that there is suffering.”

The same note mentions that after these statements, Joaquim Grave “initiated the process of alleged defamation”.

The MP from the PAN believes that the removal of her parliamentary immunity “is clearly devoid of any grounds for existence”, arguing that this “contradicts the principle of the free exercise of the parliamentary mandate, freedom of speech and political action and, ultimately, to have in mind the specific contours case – would represent an attempt at coercion and political silence, which the Assembly of the Republic has (in its own interests) a moral and ethical-legal obligation to immediately reject.

At the plenary meeting, the deputies also unanimously approved the replacement of the socialist Nuno Fazenda, who this Friday assumed the position of Secretary of State for Tourism, Trade and Services, replacing Rita Marquez.

The term of office of the deputy of the PS, elected by the circle of Castelo Branco, will be held by José Pedro Leitão Ferreira.