The date for the first meeting of the new parliament has already been set

The publication this Saturday in the Diário da República of the official map with the results of the legislative elections on March 10 determines that the first meeting of the Assembly of the Republic of the new legislature will take place next Tuesday, the 26th.

Following the publication of the official map in the newspaper Diário da República, “the Assembly of the Republic shall meet independently on the third day after the tabulation of the general election results”, as provided for in Article 173 of the Constitution.

Next Tuesday has already been the date given as the likely start date for the new Legislature, with a leadership conference set for Monday at 3:00 pm Friday, the sole purpose of which will be to “prepare the XVI Legislature.”

In the first session, deputies will elect the next President of the Assembly of the Republic, who will succeed the socialist Augusto Santos Silva, who was not elected by the Beyond Europe circle in the last legislative elections.

The first plenary session of the 16th Legislative Assembly, which represents nine parties, one more than the previous one, CDS-PP, is divided into two parts: morning and afternoon.

According to the results of the latest leadership conference released on Thursday, the work of the first session will begin at 10:00 “and, in accordance with parliamentary practice, the leader of the largest parliamentary group invites a deputy to chair and lead the work.”

Since at the moment the President of the AR is still not elected and the outgoing President Augusto Santos Silva has not been elected as a deputy, the party with the most votes, the PSD, will have to invite one of the outgoing vice-presidents who were re-elected, or the deputy who received the most number of votes, old man directing the work.

The only outgoing vice president to be re-elected was Socialist MP Edite Estrela, who in the last legislature presided over the first plenary session.

The legislator appointed to preside and conduct the proceedings of the first session will then invite two legislators to serve as secretaries of the temporary table, “who may be those who served in that role in the previous legislature and were elected, one from each of the legislatures.” largest groups of parliamentarians”, PS and SDP.

After the approval of the resolution approving the possible composition of the credentials commission, work will be interrupted and resumed again at 15:00, when a new chairman of parliament will be elected.

The leadership conference will decide on Monday whether the first session will elect only a new AP president or also a board of four vice-presidents, four secretaries and four vice-secretaries, and a new administrative council. .

For the first time, since the changes in the rules made in the last legislature, deputies will have to sign a term of office in which they solemnly affirm that they will faithfully perform the functions to which they are entrusted, as well as defend, respect and enforce the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic.

The Democratic Alliance (AD) won the elections on March 10, and the leader of the SDP was appointed prime minister by the president of the republic. Luis Montenegro will present his government on March 28, with the inauguration scheduled for April 2.

In the new parliament, the SDP will have 78 deputies (one more than in the previous legislature), the PS will also have 78 (42 fewer), Chega increases the number of parliamentarians from 12 to 50, IL retains eight deputies and BU already has five deputies. , while PCP falls from six to four. Livre grows from one to four, and PAN retains its only deputy.

The SDS-NP returns to parliament with two deputies obtained from the pre-election coalition of the AD (with the SDP and the PPM), which theoretically has 80 deputies in the Assembly of the Republic (the coalitions dissolve after the elections).