Africa-Press – Cape verde. The president of Porto Novo City Council, Aníbal Fonseca, told Inforpress this Tuesday that this municipality still has room to deliberate on another municipal holiday, having asked the Government to clarify this issue.
This mayor understands that Porto Novo only has one municipal holiday, which is celebrated on the 2nd of September, Municipality Day, and not two holidays, as the Government defends, since the 24th of June, the day of the patron saint, São João Baptista, is not a municipal holiday, but rather a type of “religious holiday”.
The Government, in a resolution dated 1992, determined that each municipality can have up to two municipal holidays and Porto Novo, according to Aníbal Fonseca, continues to believe that the only municipal holiday available to this municipality is the one celebrated on September 2nd.
The 24th of June was “since ancient times” marked as a religious holiday, but legally Porto Novo only has one holiday, believes the mayor of Porto Novo, understanding that, “officially”, this municipality only has one holiday.
Therefore, he said that there is still “room for another municipal holiday” in his municipality, an issue that must be clarified by the Government.
The statements by the mayor of Porto Novo come about the celebrations of January 17th, Santo Antão Day, a municipal holiday in Ribeira Grande and Paul, with the municipality of Porto Novo left out as there is a need to clarify the question.
A deliberation of the Municipal Assembly of Porto Novo dated September 27, 1992, published in Official Bulletin number 28, IIIrd series, of July 11, 1994, says that the municipal assembly, using its powers, set September 2 as Municipality Day and, therefore, municipal holiday.
In this deliberation, to which Inforpress had access, this municipal body also decided that the Porto Novo City Council would be in charge of asking the Government for time tolerance on the 24th of June and 30th of November, Saint John’s and Saint André’s days, patrons of the respective parishes.
For the mayor, this proves that June 24th was never a municipal holiday, but that, due to the grandeur of the Saint John festivities, this day was always a kind of religious holiday.
Some residents approached by Inforpress share the mayor’s position and believe that Porto Novo has only one municipal holiday and not two as per the Government’s understanding.
In any case, the municipality, said the mayor, has already sent a statement to the Government asking for clarification of this situation, so that it can decide on the second municipal holiday, which would be the 17th of January, as happens in Paul and Ribeira Grande , since, in the national legal framework, there is no such thing as an intermunicipal holiday.
Until this issue is clarified, the Porto Novo City Council wants the Government to grant a day off to the people of Porto Novo on January 17th, having sent the request to the executive, still awaiting a response, said the same source.
The president of the Association of Municipalities of Santo Antão defended, in statements to Inforpress, the need to celebrate the day of the island’s discovery, January 17th, in all three municipalities, without “sacrificing” public holidays in them.
After many years of celebrating the day of the discovery of Santo Antão, January 17th, only in the municipality of Ribeira Grande, this time, according to António Aleixo Martins, Paul starts to celebrate this day, with the municipality of Porto Novo being left out.
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