SDP call to allow referendum on euthanasia rejected by parliamentary committee

The Commission on Constitutional Affairs rejected on Tuesday the PSD’s appeal to exclude its project from a referendum on euthanasia, supporting the opinion of the Socialist MP Isabel Moreira, who considered it unconstitutional.

The opinion was approved with votes for PS and IL, Chega abstained and PSD, PCP and PAN abstained. BE was not present at the meeting.

Thus, the Commission on Constitutional Affairs confirmed the decision of the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, who last week refused to accept the draft PSD, considering that it violates the principle of the Constitution that prevents it from being presented in the same Session The legislative initiative on this issue has already been rejected.

In June, parliament already “failed” Chega’s draft resolution, which called for a nationwide poll on the same topic.

“The unconstitutionality is clear and obvious, so from the point of view of the rules, the only result that follows from the Constitution is non-admission,” said the author of the opinion, Isabel Moreira.

The opinion must still be voted in plenary.

From the side of the PSD, the vice-president of the bench, Paula Cardoso, expressed disagreement with the opinion, considering that the draft resolution of the party does not violate the Constitution.

“This is not an update in the same legislative session because there is no subjective or substantial identity even in the question itself,” he said, noting that an affirmative answer to the questions proposed by the SDP and Chega would not have the same effect. .

On the other hand, the MP defended that the two drafts were presented under different circumstances, since the PSD had developed a final stabilized text on the decriminalization of violent death, which was the focus of the question.

Although he refrained from an opinion, Chega’s parliamentary leader, Pedro Pinto, expressed his agreement with Isabel Moreira’s arguments.

“The referendum projects cannot be reopened in the same legislative session, it is clear as daylight, the SDP can walk as it wants. There has been a change in the leadership of the SDP, and the SDP has made a mistake, it must admit the mistake,” he said.

On the other hand, PKP deputy Alma Rivera believed that the PSD initiative should have been accepted, “even though it has no practical consequences”, and despite the fact that the party opposes both the referendum and against the decriminalization of euthanasia.

“The question is fundamentally different and has significantly different outcomes,” he said, asking the question “if a parliamentary group presents a draft with a question that is very badly asked”, it will make it impossible for any other group or MP to take a new initiative.

On the part of the PAN, the only deputy and press secretary, Ines Sousa Real, was also against the conclusions of the opinion, believing that the decision not to recognize the initiative of the PSD could limit the rights of the opposition.

“We are facing questions of different content and presented by different political forces,” he said, believing that a “serious precedent” had been set.

Socialist MP and opinion author Isabel Moreira rejected arguments that the content of the PSD and Chega’s drafts differed significantly.

“If someone asks a very absurd question to limit other referendum projects, it should also be categorically rejected,” he said.

In the opinion she read at the meeting of the Commission, the socialist deputy refers to the arguments already mentioned in the order on the exclusion of Santos Silva and the technical note attached to it.

At the same time, the Chairman of the Assembly of the Republic believes that the SDP draft, which called for a referendum on the decriminalization of euthanasia, “irresistibly contradicts” the Constitution.

PSD announced at the beginning of last week – two days before the vote on the text on medically assisted death in the Commission – a draft referendum on this issue, but in the end the vote for it did not take place because it was not adopted.

On Friday, the Assembly of the Republic approved the decriminalization of medically assisted death in a final global vote, for the third time, with votes in favor of a majority of PS, IL, BE, the only PAN and Livre MPs and six PSD MPs.

The majority of the SDP bench, the Chega and PKP parliamentary groups and six PS deputies voted against, with three abstentions among the Social Democrats and one in the Socialist bench.

The decree still needs to be finalized before it reaches the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebel de Sousa, who can promulgate it, veto it or apply to the Constitutional Court for a preventive review of the text.