Constituent deputies abandon Parliament in the face of André Ventura’s “truth”

Helena Roseta, Jerónimo de Sousa and others returned at the end of the Chega leader’s speech, which condemned the activities of the FP-25. Constitution “is not untouchable”, Aguiar-Branco also warned.

Some constituent deputies present at the solemn session commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Constitutionincluding Helena Roseta and Jerónimo de Sousa, left the parliament galleries during the intervention of the Chega leader.

In his speech during the ceremony, André Ventura said that there were citizens who, “already with this Constitution or on the verge of this Constitution, after the revolution or close to the revolution, [que] they were arrested without warrants, they were killed in FP-25 attacks.”

“They were murdered by terrorist groups sponsored” by “many of these constituency deputies”, accused the Chega leader.

After apologizing for the “lack of courtesy” owed to the Assembly of the Republic, Ventura asked “what future generations will say” when they learn that “a parliament amnestied a left-wing terrorist group that had on its list the deaths of babies, human beings, couples, at the hands of the extreme left”.

The president of Chega stated that “shortly after the 25th of April there were more political prisoners than there were before the 25th of April 1974”.

“That’s the truth”, repeated (six times in a row) André Ventura.

After these words, some of the constituents invited to the session They stood up in protest and left the room.

When Ventura finished his speech, the constituents returned to the room and the Chega deputies protested, having been reprimanded by the president of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, asking them to restrain themselves from the gestures that “do not dignify this parliament”.

“Just because they leave doesn’t mean the truth won’t be told”, said the leader of Chega, while Aguiar-Branco warned that “freedom is for everyone” and told André Ventura to continue.

Ventura ended by saying that the departure of some of the constituent deputies “is proof that they never knew how to live with freedom” and that “they only know how to live with their freedom” and that Chega is “a defender of all freedom: right, left and center”.

The re-entry of these former deputies was, however, worth a standing ovation from the benches, with the exception of Chega and the CDS-PP.

José Pedro Aguiar-Branco recalled that the constituent deputies are in the session “at the invitation of the Assembly of the Republic” and even asked the Chega deputy and deputy secretary of the Parliament’s Bureau Filipe Melo to shut upwhich led this parliamentarian to also leave the hemicycle.

Architect Helena Roseta later called André Ventura rude and asked Aguiar-Branco for more action.

Some constituent deputies present at the solemn session commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Constitution, including Helena Roseta and Jerónimo de Sousa, left the parliament galleries during the speech by Chega’s leader.

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Constitution “is not untouchable”

The president of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, argued that constitutional review is a possibility and not a drama or betrayalmaintaining that the Constitution “is not untouchable” and, to last, “cannot be immutable”.

The President of the Assembly of the Republic began by highlighting that “in this political moment, but also in the media, making an intervention on the Constitution of the Republic is a demanding exercise”, because even if only its history is addressed, “a political reading of these words will be made”.

“On this topic, at this moment, all words about the Constitution will have second readings. They will have second readings. And they can cause indignation. From some, from others, or even from everyone. I accept the risk”, he stated, adding “there are no second readings”, but only the “literal reading”.

Aguiar-Branco stressed that the Constitution is “much more than a text and the words that compose it”, being the “cornerstone” of the Portuguese political system and democracy and that, having survived “the test of time”, it has proven that it works and “deserves to be celebrated”.

The President of the Assembly argued that the Constitution has survived over these 50 years, despite the various changes in the country’s life, because it is “more flexible and more comprehensive than many imagine” and “it is thought, designed and written, not to go against the times, but to adapt to the times”, providing “the rules, terms, forms and limits of its review”.

The president of parliament highlighted that, knowing that the world is not static, the deputies of the Constituent Assembly “made constitutional review a possibility” and “it is not a drama, or an obligation”.

“Not a betrayal or an irrevocable duty. A free possibility, within the reach of this Parliament”, he emphasized, remembering later that the fundamental text has already been revised seven times and no revision prevented the Constitution from being celebrated today.

Aguiar-Branco added that “if the Constitution is now revised, the Constitution will work” and that the same happens if the fundamental text is not changed or if a revision is rejected and asked: “When it is the Constitution itself that asks us whether something should be changed, who are we to not want to hear that question?”

Afterwards, the president of parliament argued that “the Constitution is respected, but it is not untouchable” and that “to be lasting, it cannot be immutable”.

At the beginning of the speech, the president of parliament also noted that photojournalists who “distinguished themselves with their work covering the Constituent Assembly” were invited, stating that these professionals, with their images, told the story of the fundamental text. The reference was applauded by all the stands.

Failure to comply brings frustration

The President of the Republic, Antonio José Seguroconsidered that it is not the Constitution that prevents the resolution of the problems in the lives of the Portuguese and argued that the “frustration that the Portuguese feel is not that of the Constitution”, but that of “its non-compliance”.

For the President of the Republic, it is not a fundamental text that “prevents the resolution” of concrete problems in the lives of the Portuguese. Seguro began the intervention with a thank you to the constituent deputies, and asked for responsibility to preserve the courts from debates and readings that “may suggest their partisanship” and called for firmness in defending the initial principles of the Constitution in the face of the “fog of difficult times”.