According to the office of the President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, public access is via registration (dmc.correio@ar.parlamento.pt) and the concert, which will last 30 minutes, takes place after the plenary session on the afternoon of the 19th.

This initiative to open the Christmas concert to the public, according to José Pedro Aguiar-Branco's office, is part of the President of the Assembly of the Republic's objective of bringing parliament closer to citizens in general.

At the beginning of his term, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco said that one of his top priorities is to give “a signal to society that parliament is an open house”. He argued that “it is necessary to deepen the meaning of this signal”, through “simple actions, but which can make a difference”.

As a first action, the president of the Assembly of the Republic began by ordering the security barriers that were permanently installed at the foot of the main staircase of parliament to be removed.

Afterwards, he proposed the creation of “Municipality Day” and launched the “Parliament Close to Municipalities”, aiming to increase interaction and cooperation between this sovereign body and the national territory.

Still within the scope of this objective, the former social-democratic minister also stated that he intends to create conditions so that the Assembly of the Republic can be visited on weekends.

“It makes perfect sense that [citizens] can do this on weekends when they have more time to do it. At a time when, even though they live further away, they can come to Lisbon and see all the citizens’ homes”, he explained.