The President of the Assembly of the Republic said on Tuesday that he acted in a unifying and restrained manner, devalued the incidents with Chega and stressed from an institutional point of view that the government is politically responsible to Parliament.
These positions were laid out by Augusto Santos Silva at a press conference designed to present the balance of parliamentary activity in the first legislative session, which began on March 29, 2022 and will last about 18 months.
“I think my presidency has gone very smoothly in this month and a half. I have tried to exercise a discreet presidency by never using all the tools the Rules give me; impartially, taking the side of the whole parliament; and uniting, trying to unite the political forces around the so-called common basis of democracy,” asserted the socialist deputy elected by the “Out of Europe” circle, the former Minister of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
In this “common soil of democracy”, in the words of Augusto Santos Silva, “all political views fit in, all political currents can be represented, and in which speech is absolutely free.”
“The only thing to refrain from is hate speech,” he stressed, before denying that Chega’s performance was his biggest problem as president of the Assembly of the Republic.
“My biggest challenge has been to fulfill the very important powers that are given to me by the Rules of Procedure and the Constitution, the exercise of which requires a lot of attention and a sense of balance. And try to live up to the expectations for which I was chosen,” he objected.
The President of the Assembly of the Republic then sought to emphasize that he does not coordinate his reaction with the parliamentary groups”, but rather in accordance with his regimental duties, refusing, for example, the admissibility of unconstitutional bills or bills, or stopping speeches of deputies related to serious offenses or injuries.
But “I have not exercised all the powers that the Regulations give me in the circumstances,” he warned.
When asked how long he would defend his decision not to invite Chega deputies to his entourage on official visits to foreign countries, Augusto Santos Silva replied: “Personally, I do not believe in life sentences.”
The President of the Assembly of the Republic subsequently stated that his option to exclude the deputies from Chega from their official entourage was the result of the behavior of this parliamentary group at the ceremonial meeting of the President of Brazil, Lula da Silva, on April 25 – behavior that outraged him and which took place in the presence of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the diplomatic corps and other national authorities.
“This did not guarantee that when traveling abroad [que envolvessem contactos oficiais] this parliamentary group could represent the country, bearing in mind the tradition of courtesy, courtesy and respect that characterize Portugal’s foreign policy. Let’s see how events will develop. We are all evolving,” he said here with relative openness.
When asked about the existence of the loss of the Assembly of the Republic as the supervisory body of the government, namely the President of the Republic, when there is a situation of absolute majority, Augusto Santos Silva rejected this thesis, then resorting to the Constitution to emphasize that the government is politically responsible to Parliament.
“As President of Parliament, it is my duty to ensure that the Government responds to the Assembly of the Republic in a timely manner and to guarantee the free exercise of all rights of scrutiny,” he said, before noting that no parliamentary group had fully exercised all of its rights and that the revision of the Rules, which “tightens” supervision of the Prime Minister, was completed without a single vote against.
“The Portuguese Parliament has only one chamber. And it is to this unicameral parliament that the government is responsible,” he stressed, not referring in his response to the letter of the President of the Republic, nor to the question of a greater frequency of meetings of the State Council.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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