Tiago Petinga / Lusa
The president of the PSD bench denounced situations in the plenary session of intimidation and coercion against deputies who are filmed and photographed by other deputies, and the PAN spokeswoman complained about the behavior of Chega guests.
These accusations appear in the summary of the conference of parliamentary leaders on November 20th, released today, in the part relating to the discussion of deputies’ civility duties.
Hugo Soares stated that situations of “coercion and intimidation exercised by deputies when taking photographs and make films of other deputiesduring the plenary session, with the aim of placing them on social media, thus conditioning the freedom of targeted deputies”.
Although without specifying the authors of these conditioning actions, the president of the PSD bench also made reference to “behaviors less typical of citizens visiting the Assembly of the Republic” at the invitation of parliamentary groups, “defending that they have to be held responsible for the acts of their guests”.
At this point, the PAN deputy, Inês Sousa Real, went further than Hugo Soares, held Chega responsible and revealed cases that happened to you.
The only PAN deputy said that “had made a complaint to the security services and the secretary general of the Assembly of the Republic in relation to Chega guests, since had the right to be able to work quietly”.
Inês Sousa Real “confirmed other situations, saying that there were Chega guests who entered his office to ask questions“, and that a autistic teenager was sent to his office to ask him questions”, reads the summary of the leaders’ conference.
The President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Brancothen emphasized that, previously, he had asked that this type of behavior and situations were reported to him so that he could act within the powers attributed to it”.
According to the summary of the leaders’ conference, the president of Chega’s bench, Pedro Pinto“referred to be unaware of the situations reported and considered them regretful, apologizing” to Inês Sousa Real. He also requested that when situations like these occur, they should be brought to his attention.
Next, the Chega deputy Rui Paulo Sousa stated that he recognized that his party was being the main target in that discussion ongoing discussion on civility duties in parliament.
Rui Paulo Sousa then argued that some of the words spoken by André Ventura in plenary, such as use of the expression “thief”had already been used in the context of the parliamentary debate by the former leader of the Left Bloc Francisco Louçã in relation to José Sócratesformer socialist prime minister.
According to the summary of the leaders’ conference, the parliamentary leader of the PS, Alexandra Leitão, stated that there are “minor circumstances urbanity and cordiality in the relationship between deputies, in the plenary, which constituted violations of the Code of Conduct and deserved reflection.”
The position received the agreement of the presidents of the Left Bloc benches, Fabian Figueiredofrom the PCP, Paula Santos, and from the deputy of Livre Paulo Muacho.
The parliamentary leader of the Liberal Initiative, Mariana Leitãodefended freedom of expression, but noted that “there are education issues which should not be exceeded”, while the president of the CDS bench, Paulo Núncio, praised the president of the Assembly of the Republic for his impartiality in conducting the work.
Seeking to summarize the discussion, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco maintained that in that debate “what was at stake was not a question of freedom of expression, but of conduct, education and civility of each one.”
“He highlighted that there is a Code of Conduct for Deputies, but there are no sanctions for violating its rules, so the solution lies in self-regulation, in the constant appeal of the panel so that the recording of interventions in plenary is respectful and for the deputies listen to each other”, it also says in the minutes of the meeting.
