This Wednesday, the President of the Republic dismissed doubts about the constitutionality of Parliament’s decision to decriminalize death in healthcare, saying he vetoed it because of a “problem of accuracy” and that if it were upheld, “there would be no drama.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who spoke to reporters in the garden of the Belem Palace in Lisbon, added that if the Assembly of the Republic decides to change the decree to meet its “very specific requests”, he sees no reason to pass it.
“If the Assembly votes to keep the same version, I am obliged to make it public. If it fits with what I’m proposing, I see no reason not to make it public – because if I proposed it, it’s because I understand that it should be accepted. In one case I am obliged, in another case I do it because the Assembly accepted my proposal,” he said.
According to the head of state, the questions he raised “are moments that are not related to the problem of unconstitutionality, this is a problem of accuracy.”
Asked about the possibility of parliamentary approval of the decree in its current form – an option that this Wednesday was directly defended by the Esquerda Bloc and the Liberal Initiative and, more indirectly, by PS – Marcelo Rebelo de Souza remarked: “There is no drama, this is life. “.
“I must abide by, I swore to abide by the Constitution,” he stressed.
Despite the opposing position expressed by PS, Iniciativa Liberal and Bloco de Esquerda, the President of the Republic noted in the reaction of the parties “the sensitivity to consider accepting these very specific requests.”
According to the Constitution, in the face of a veto, the Assembly of the Republic can approve a vote by an absolute majority of the current deputies, 116 out of 230, in which case the President of the Republic will have to promulgate the law. diploma within eight days of receiving it.
The President of the Republic sent the first decree on this matter to the Constitutional Court, in February 2021 vetoed the second one in November of the same year, and also sent the third for a preventive check in January of this year. Two submissions to the Constitutional Court resulted in a veto for unconstitutionality.
Now, faced with the fourth version, he once again chose a political veto, without using the right of preventive verification, and asked Parliament “to clarify who determines the patient’s physical inability to self-administer lethal drugs, and who should provide medical supervision over the act of providing medical help.”
In a letter addressed this Wednesday to the Assembly of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa argues that “on this sensitive issue and in view of the very brief parliamentary debate on the last two amendments, it seems reasonable to retain all conceptual clarifications.” , even in terms of stepwise data and its largely original character in comparative law.”
The head of state told journalists that “it is the choice of the Assembly” whether or not to accept his request to amend the decree and that the clarifications that he asks for in the decree could also be made to regulate the law. .
The head of state denied that he contributes to the legal uncertainty of the future law on euthanasia by not sending this parliamentary decree to the Constitutional Court.
“Since the Constitutional Court last time ruled only on a very specific point that suffered, deserved repair, I assumed that the court was not going to change its position,” he explained.
Answering a question about the withdrawal of candidates for the post of European prosecutor, the head of state only said that he hoped “that the process, in which it is important that there is a European prosecutor in Portugal, will not take much time.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa did not want to interfere in the question of a possible death referendum with the help of a doctor, which he referred to Parliament.
For the same reasons, he refused to comment on issues related to the parliamentary commission to investigate the political guardianship of the TAR leadership.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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