The call comes after statements by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro about the possible sending of Portuguese troops to Ukraine and following the North American attack on Venezuela. This will probably be the last meeting of the consultative body during Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s mandate.
The State Council will meet this Friday, at the Palace of Belém, to analyze the international situation and in particular in Ukraine, a topic that motivated the call by the President of the Republic, to which he has since added Venezuela.
This meeting takes place in a context of official campaign for the presidential elections January 18th – what Two State Councilors are running, Luís Marques Mendes and André Venturawho announced that they will be present – and six days after the US attack on Venezuelawith the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, taken by force to the United States of America.
The State Council will meet following a visit by the Prime Minister to Kiev on December 20, during which Luís Montenegro declared that “nothing prevents” Portugal from sending troops to Ukraine in peacetime and, in a press conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky, announced an agreement for the joint production of underwater drones.
This will be the 40th and most likely the last meeting of the presidential consultation political body during the mandates of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousaafter an interval of almost ten months since the previous one, held on March 13th of last year, for the purposes of the dissolution of parliament that led to the early legislative elections of May 18th.
On Christmas Eve, in Barreiro, the President of the Republic, who will leave office in two months, said that waited more than six months for the election of the five State Councilors of the Assembly of the Republic for the current legislaturewhich was scheduled for December 19th, but was postponed until after the presidential elections.
“When fundamental decisions are being made about Ukraine, I discuss them in the Superior Council for National Defense, which I preside over, and they are not discussed in the Council of State?”, argued the head of state and supreme commander of the Armed Forces.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa wants this political advisory body to analyze “Europe’s position in terms of financial support for Ukrainewhich commits States for the future, due to European debt” and also “a military or non-Portuguese commitment, in the event of a ceasefire in the future”.
The Assembly of the Republic has never taken so long to elect its five members to the Council of State, which in the past almost always took place in the first two months of the legislature.
“It is not very natural for the President of the Republic to leave office without the Council of Statewith the composition it has, which is legal, cannot appreciate this matter. And, therefore, I waited for this election, which was supposed to be on December 19th, but there was none, as the State Council meeting was taking place. Constitutional normality continues”, he added, to justify the meeting scheduled for today.
The prime minister was away on vacation between Christmas and the start of the official campaign period for the presidential elections.
However, on Saturday, the United States of America attacked Venezuela. At the end of the afternoon, the President of the Republic met via videoconference with the Prime Minister and the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel, and it was agreed to take the topic to today’s meeting.
Under the terms of the Constitution, elected councilors remain in office until those who replace them take office. Thus, those elected in the last legislature, in 2024, continue to represent parliament: Carlos Moedas (PSD), Pedro Nuno Santos and Carlos César (PS) and André Ventura (Chega).
The founder of the PSD and former prime minister Francisco Pinto Balsemão, who died on October 21, had also been elected by parliament.
Pedro Nuno Santos told Expresso that he will not participate in the meeting, since he was elected because he was general secretary of the PS, a position he no longer holds.
The five advisors appointed by the head of state are Luís Marques Mendes, Leonor Beleza, Lídia Jorge, Joana Carneiro and António Lobo Xavier.
The holders of the positions of president of the Assembly of the Republic, prime minister, president of the Constitutional Court, ombudsman, presidents of regional governments and former presidents of the Republic are also members of the State Council.
