PSD draft ‘irresistibly’ runs counter to Constitution, says Santos Silva

The President of the Assembly of the Republic this Wednesday appealed against the Constitutional Court’s 2005 decision to find that the PSD draft calling for a referendum on the decriminalization of euthanasia is “irresistibly contrary” to the Constitution.

In the inadmissibility order that Lusa had access to – after the decision was announced in the afternoon – Augusto Santos Silva also relies on the eligibility note from the services of the Assembly of the Republic to conclude that the PSD initiative extends another submitted Chegoy on the same issue in June, which was rejected.

This is a violation of paragraph 4 of Article 167 of the Basic Law, which determines that “drafts and proposals for laws and referendums that have been finally rejected cannot be renewed in the same legislative session, with the exception of new elections to the Assembly of the Republic.” “.

Santos Silva cites that “it is peaceful in terms of the most current constitutional doctrine and jurisprudence”, that he does not care who the proponents of the initiatives are, saying that he understands that the Constitution pursues “the prestige of the institution, as well as the good management of parliamentary time” .

The Chairman of the Assembly of the Republic admits that in the two draft resolutions the issues presented by Chega and the PSD “have different wording”.

“However, in this case, this is not enough to exclude the application of the rule prohibiting the resumption in the same legislative session of the rejected referendum projects,” he argues.

Santos Silva cites decision 578/2005 in the case concerning the referendum on voluntary termination of pregnancy, which states that “the differences in the wording of the questions, especially since they are referendum proposals and not legislative texts, are insufficient. to allow us to state that voters do not intend to comment on the same issue in two referendum initiatives.”

The President of the Parliament recalls that this decision appeals to the positions of the constitutionalists Jorge Miranda, Gomes Canotilho and Vital Moreira, with the former defending that “the identity of the prescriptive meanings matters”, and not “the identity of the issues addressed in two or more initiatives”, while “ simple differences in details” are irrelevant.

“It is my understanding that the foregoing clearly and unequivocally shows that draft resolution 311/XV/1.a is irremediably contrary to the provisions of the Constitution and the Organic Law on the referendum regime on this issue,” he said.

Santos Silva recalls that the Regulations give the President of the Assembly of the Republic the power to accept or reject diplomas “confirmed by their regimental conformity, without prejudice to the right of appeal to the Assembly.”

“Like my predecessors, I understand that this right must be exercised with the greatest care, with respect for the constitutionally recognized powers of initiative, and therefore must be exclusive, and, when based on unconstitutionality, only when it leads to absolute obvious and are obvious, and the reasons cannot be corrected in the course of the legislative process, in my opinion,” he adds, justifying the abandonment of the PSD project.

The Assemblies of the Republic’s service technical note also concludes that the SDP initiative “does not appear to meet the formal eligibility requirements provided for in the Constitution” due to the failure to meet the renewal deadline in the same legislative session.

Following the announcement of the non-admission decision, the SDP general secretary Hugo Soares this afternoon accused the speaker of parliament and leader Chega of “complicity and collusion” in the rejection of the Social Democrats’ project, which called for a referendum on the decriminalization of euthanasia and said that the party would appeal the decision to plenary session.