--Previous Message-- : : Well, I suppose we can call this a story but : no scandal at all. The President said the : couple use to be invited (i.e. out of : courtesy - nothing in the protocol that : demands an invitation) for these events : (State Banquets in honour of foreign : Sovereigns) but something happened with the : invitations and they weren't invited that : time. They were indeed invited by the King : & Queen of Sweden for the Return : Banquet. : : In fact, the King & Queen of Norway also : paid a State Visit to Portugal after the : Swedish royal couple and I couldn't manage : to find any photos of the Duke & Duchess : at the State Banquet (also white tie, jewels : and decorations). The Norwegian royal couple : didn't host a full white-tie return banquet : but some sort of less formal dinner/concert : (can't remember well - the dress code was : short dress and business tie) and the Duke : & Duchess were also in attendance. : : When the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of : Cornwall paid an official visit to the : country, the Duke & Duchess were invited : for the dinner at Queluz Palace and I : believe they were also present for the State : Banquet in honour of the Grand Duke & : Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (they're cousins : so, it made perfect sense). : : : I understand your point of view Pedro but I : keep thinking it was a small scandal. I’m : going to try to explain myself quickly. We : know that the invitations, for these kind of : events, to the Royal Family are made only as : courtesy as Portugal for now is a Republic, : hence I also spoke in the tradition factor. : But we also know that the Republic is not : completely comfortable with the presence of : the Royal Family. Apparently only the Dukes : did not received the invitation, which sound : strange. : However the main question is: with the : amount of money the Presidency receives from : the taxpayers and with the (huge) number of : employees it has, it was its obligation to : be much more professional. They should have : either admit that did not wanted the : presence of the Royal family or assume that : they were not professional enough. To say : ‘We do not know what happened’ is not : admissible. In order for the things to work : in the country the Portuguese people must : start be demanding, starting from the top. : Sorry for this OT.
Well, the former socialist Government already recognized the Duke of Braganza as the rightful heir of the former royal dynasty to avoid other people to make such claims. There was an official document published by the Parliament with this information. They are officialy sent by the State to certain events abroad to represent the country. The whole political class was present at the Duke's own wedding. They were given first seats in the recent funeral of the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon. To say the more than 100 years old Portuguese Republic - presently with a conservative (so-called social-democratic) President, Parliament and Government - is not at all confortable with the royal presence in a State Banquet... Sorry, not at all true. And the fact is that they attended banquets hosted by the President after that incident.
I leave here the only good photo I could find from the dinner at Queluz Palace showing the Duchess's earrings.