The Supreme Court rejects the preventive measure. Esa de Queiroz goes to the National Pantheon

The Supreme Administrative Court rejected the precautionary measure presented by the six great-grandchildren of Esa Queiroz to prevent the transfer of the writer’s remains to the National Pantheon, a decision of the Assembly of the Republic.

According to the decision to which the Lusa agency had access this Thursday, “the necessary assumption of the expected opposition on the part of the majority of the great-grandchildren, set out by the applicants in their initial request in support of their request, results in the requirement of “fumus boni juris” not being fulfilled” [expressão em latim que significa algo como fumaça do bom direito]which in itself means that the requested precautionary measure to suspend the operation of resolution 55/2021 of the Assembly of the Republic cannot be granted.”

Thus, “for the reasons explained, the judges of the administrative panel of the Supreme Administrative Court decide [STA] reject the precautionary measure required for the temporary suspension of the resolution of the Assembly of the Republic.”

This unfavorable decision on the claim of the great-grandchildren who brought the preventive measure still allows for an appeal to the full body of the STA, although the path for the transfer to occur now appears clear.

Six of the writer’s great-grandchildren filed this legal measure in September with the Supreme Administrative Court to prevent the transfer.

Of the 22 great-grandchildren of Esa de Queiroz, 13 agreed to be transferred to the National Pantheon, with three abstaining.

The Esa de Queiroz Foundation, headed by the writer Afonso Reis Cabral, also advocates translation, having pioneered the process.

The resolution to award Esa de Queiroz the National Pantheon Award, proposed by the PS parliamentary group, was approved unanimously in plenary session on January 15, 2021.

To this end, a working group was created, which carried out a number of steps, with the transfer of the remains of Es de Queiroz to the National Pantheon scheduled for September 27 this year.

More than two years after the approval of the above resolution, a minority group consisting of the descendants of the writer wrote a letter to the President of the Assembly of the Republic proposing that these honors be bestowed by the installation in the Pantheon of a memorable tombstone without the transfer of the remains, which should continue in Tormes.

The controversy was discussed at a conference of parliamentary leaders, where the President of the Assembly of the Republic admitted that the reaction of the relevant family members was belated and called it an “embarrassing development.”

Esa de Queiroz died on August 16, 1900 and was buried in Lisbon. In September 1989, his remains were transferred from the Alto de São João cemetery in the capital to the family grave in the Santa Cruz do Douro cemetery in Baiana.