Rodrigo Antunes / Lusa
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
43rd veto: President of the Republic doubts the transparency of the process and the capacity to apply the new map.
The President of the Republic the sentence The Parliament Decree that disagreement 135 Unions of parishes, replenishing 302 of these local authorities, putting doubts about the transparency of the process and the application capacity of the new map.
According to one published in the official site of the Presidency of the Republic on the Internet, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa questions “the ability to apply the consequences of the new map to the elections autarchic September or October this year, in a little over six months ”and says this was the” decisive “issue for his veto.
The head of state points out “ lack of public understanding or transparency of the legislative process”And he considers that the disaggregation of parishes determined by this decree – subscribed by PSD, PS, BE, PCP, Livre and Pan, who had votes against IL and the abstention of arrival – is “Contradictory with the dominant line, inspired by European institutions. ”
In your opinion, and in a long explanation, the legislative process has “advances and setbacks, their contradictionshesitations and successive party positions, inclusion and exclusion of parishes, and, above all, rigorous respect for technical-legal requirements to be fulfilled. ”
“Thus, the President of the Republic requests the Assembly of the Republic that weight, Once again, the practicality of the application of the said diploma on the horizon of this 2025 electoral year, reads in the note.
Message to Parliament
In the message addressed to the Assembly of the Republic on this veto, also published in the official website of the Presidency of the Republic on the Internet, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa emphasizes that Parliament can confirm the decree approved on January 17.
“It is incumbent upon the Assembly of the Republic if it understands it, reaffirming its will. Thus confirming to the Portuguese that it was not a solution dictated for reasons or conjunctural conveniences, before expressing the result of a long and serene weighting, which dictated the inclusion of some and the exclusion of other parishes, in a line of not only reversing a policy of 2013 Fund, how to replace it with another better for Portugal, ”he says.
In this message, it begins by mentioning that this disaggregation implies “a reversal – for some a serious backwardness – in a path of reordering and rationalization of local power, thus questioning the essence of the 2013 reform.
This review “covers only less than one third From the 2013 aggregations and does not touch the supply entities ”and was supported by a majority“ much more representative than 2013, only one party opposing – the liberal initiative ”, he points out.
“Moreover – the opposite path defenders, in 2011 and in 2013, subscribed and voted the new solution,” he adds.
For Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, “As for the evolution of party positions, it is not possible to transform the judgment underlying the promulgation into scrutiny of what will be the conversion of disagreements into a favorable vote or final abstention”.
The head of state also argues that, “as for the analysis, parish with parish, from the rigor of compliance with the technical-legal requirements, is impossible Within the time of promulgation or veto, access the President of the Republic to this data source ”.
“It would not be politically and, in particular, legally honest, Formulate a perennial judgment, positive or negative, without knowledge of necessarily numerous and complex data. All in twenty days, ”he argues.
About “the ability to apply the consequences of the new map to the September or October elections this year,” he argues that “it is true that the deadline of the election is more than six months”, but “the complexity of the installation, And resolution of emerging problems is variable from parishes for disaggregated parishes and can really be, here and there, very complex. ”
“Therefore, and not for any fetishism of dates, in stories like this – and this has happened to simpler subject in 2021 -, I considered desirable to avoid legislative changes in the election year“, Justifies.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa distinguishes this case from legal changes “only facilitate mobility in the vote” or “parity and bread vote”.
“In reinstallation, it is to say, recreation of local autarchy, my concern for realization is greater. This is unique, to return this Decree to the Assembly of the Republic, ”he concludes.
The head of state points out that it made this decision “not by questioning the will of the populations, the parliamentary legitimacy for reversals, starting in the previously supported parties, nor because it has a fact available to contradict the application of the technical-legal requirements of disagreements ”.
“Just for IMPERATIVE OF CONSCIOUS Regarding the ability to execute the new law, without subsequent questions of law – or de facto – patrimonial, financial, administrative or other, resulting from the available time, ”he says.
As the, this is the 43rd veto Applied by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, since he became President of the Republic in 2016.
“Shock”
The president of the National Association of Parishes (Anafre), Jorge Veloso, said this Thursday he was perplexed and shocked by this decision of the President of the Republic; considers that it harms mayors and populations.
“I am perplexed with this attitude of the President of the Republic. The first idea that comes to mind is perplexing with this decision making of the President of the Republic. AND why? Because a month ago the President spoke to media when some hypotheses of veto began to be raised (…) and said that I would never go through your mind this situation Because he himself had promulgated this law that allowed the disintegration to be, ”he told Lusa Jorge Veloso.
“What is further shocked is that in April 2024, the President of the Republic contemplated Anafre with the Order of Freedom (…). This order did not go to Anafre itself, but to its mayors. After not a year, the President of the Republic has an attitude that shocks us. What is in question is that the president has a position that is against the mayors, against their populations and against all the work that the deputies had in the Assembly of the Republic and for us this It’s shocking“, These.
(updated article)
