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Portugal will return to a state of emergency at the end of this week. After having listened to the parties on Monday and having listened to the social partners this Tuesday, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will be in a position to send, between today and tomorrow, the decree of the state of emergency to the Assembly of the Republic: that will not lose time. Regarding the Observer, the office of Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues hopes to schedule the plenary session where the decree will be voted at the meeting of the conference of leaders this Wednesday. It will be Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. And the central bloc has already said that it will approve it.
As the Constitution says, “the declaration of the state of emergency depends on a hearing of the Government and authorization from the Assembly of the Republic”, so that will be the way: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa must send the decree proposal today or tomorrow by the morning. to the Government, for opinion, and then to the Assembly of the Republic for discussion and voting. It is, however, only a legal framework, with the suspension of certain constitutional principles, and then it is up to the Government to define what measures it will apply within this constitutional hat: the limitation of circulation at certain hours of the day (curfew ) and the possibility Temperature measurement in public services are some of the measurements that are on the table.
This, of course, if the state of emergency decree is approved. But of that there is no doubt. This Monday, in an interview with RTP, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa did not mention parties but made it clear that there was a “clear majority”, of more than two thirds, to approve a new decree of a state of emergency – “if this is not a majority. .. ”, he said wryly. That is, PS and PSD are guaranteed, plus CDS and PAN, and ready. Although the rest of the House is opposed, because, as the President recognized, “politics has changed” and there is no longer “unanimity”, there are enough votes, with the central bloc, to pave the way for restrictive measures.
So PS and PSD said at the end of the meetings in Belém. “The PSD has nothing to oppose” to the declaration of the state of emergency, said Nuno Morais Sarmento, explaining that this position “has nothing to do with the agreement with each of the measures that can be taken.” In other words, the legal framework is one thing, the measures decreed by the Government are another. On the side of the PS, the agreement was even more evident: “The PS is in favor of the proposal to adopt the state of emergency” as long as it “limits itself to needs,” said José Luís Carneiro.
CDS also left the door open to this “national effort”, as long as it was a minimalist state of emergency: “CDS faces the possibility of a new state of emergency knowing that it has to be minimalist” to “contain the upstream pandemic and not only in hospitals, ”said Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos. The PAN also said it is willing to make possible a state of emergency that does not imply “enormous restrictions on people’s freedom”, but rather a state of emergency that “allows the necessary measures for this period.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, that night, on RTP, did not call it minimalist but called it “limited” and preventive. “A different state of emergency in the sense of very limited, with mainly preventive and not very extensive effects, which does not point to a total or almost total closure,” he said. From what the Observer found, the idea is to create a legal hat to answer the four questions posed by the Prime Minister:
- Limit the movement of people at certain times of the day (the so-called curfew), and limit the movement between municipalities, as happened this weekend;
- Expand screening to include the Armed Forces and individuals, who can now ask screening questions to better identify transmission chains
- Solve the legal problem posed by temperature measurement when accessing shows, public services, etc;
- Create better conditions for the use of resources from the private sector and the social and cooperative sector;
Costa’s words, however, still resonate with some parties, which do not understand what a “preventive” state of emergency is, as the prime minister said at the end of the hearing in Belém on Monday morning. Costa went so far as to say that it was justified to promulgate a state of emergency within a framework “of much more limited scope but probably much longer than the 15 days allowed by the Constitution.” What is preventive and for how long? It is unknown. The Constitution is clear about the need for Parliament to vote on its renewal every 15 days, but a longer agreement can be reached from the beginning avoiding moments of tension every 15 days.
In the Left Bloc, which voted in favor of the first state of emergency and maintained the vote in favor of the next two renewals, the order is to wait and see the terms of the decree. Upon leaving Belém, Catarina Martins said that what the Government has requested so far can be achieved through legislation in Parliament, without having to go through the state of emergency, on the one hand, but, on the other, she welcomed the idea. For the State to use resources from the private and social sector to provide a greater response capacity to the Health sector, all the others – PCP, IL, Chega – have tended to be against it.
