Former President of the Republic, Mário Soares, today visited the recently released former Prime Minister José Sócrates to wish him a happy birthday.
Soares arrived at the Lisbon address on Sunday morning but refused to make statements to the gang of press and photographers camped outside Sócrates’ ex-wife’s apartment in Rua Abade Faria, Lisbon.
Spanish sparkling wine, cava, is finally reaping the rewards of being marketed for the last 30 years as good value for money.
Exports of cava zoomed ahead, rising from 10 million bottles in 1980 to 155 million last year. That was the sixth year in a row when foreign sales of cava outstripped those of its rival, French champagne, which exported 145 million bottles in 2014.
Judges have decided that the former Prime Minister José Sócrates is unlikely to be able to disrupt the inquiry into his financial affairs and that he now should be allowed to live at his ex-wife’s house in Rua Abade Faria, Lisbon.
Judge Carlos Alexandre thinks that Sócrates still may be inclined to skip the country and therefore has ordered that there be a police guard at the given address at all times but Sócrates does not need to be fitted with an electronic tag.
Tax on the sale of property (IMT*) will start to disappear as from 2017 with a one-third reduction, followed by the scrapping of the tax in 2018, according to a new, refreshing and welcome law published on Friday.
IMT will be replaced by Stamp Duty but before readers start grinding their teeth in annoyance, this will be at half the rate that the current IMT which it replaces.
In solidarity with the aim of "minimising the impact of the grave human crisis that currently is being experienced globally" Portugal’s Bishops decided as one to join the Platform of Support for Refugees and hope that this and other initiatives will help thousands of people trying to enter Europe.
In a statement issued by the Ecclesia agency, the Bishops are said to have joined several organisations such as the Catholic Work for Migration and the Confederation of Private Institutions of Social Solidarity. The aim is to help coordinate the response of these organisations to the refugee crisis.
Receipts at the Easytoll booths at the start of the Via do Infante in the Algarve, grew by 24% this summer with over 68,000 drivers of foreign registered vehicle paying for the privilege of using the region’s one motorway.
The total revenue from drivers of foreign registered cars was €4.1 million during June, July and August, according to a cheery press release from Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP), which noted the rise in its income of 20% over summer 2014.
TAP boss Fernando Pinto warned workers today that the special conditions which have been in force regarding early retirement will end on the day the airline finally is sold.
In a message sent to TAP employees, the company's president said the airline is approaching the final stage of being sold and that there are just a few legal procedures to complete, which he assured soon will be done.
Despite squabbles over Gibraltar, Britain and Spain see eye to eye on structural reforms for the EU.
David Cameron and Spanish premier Mariano Rajoy have written a joint article for a Spanish financial newspaper urging reform in order to “make the European Union much more competitive”.
