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On this occasion, the President of the Assembly of the Republic must decide for himself whether or not to accept that the constitutional revision proposal proposed by Chega be admitted for discussion. After asking the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees for an opinion on the constitutionality of the proposal, he prepares to respond to Ferro Rodrigues, whom he considers incompetent to carry out such an analysis on constitutional revision projects.
This is the conclusion of the opinion drawn up by the socialist deputy Isabel Moreira, who is also a constitutionalist and who has been a critical voice in the position and proposals of deputy André Ventura. “The Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees has competence to issue opinions on the constitutionality of legislative initiatives, but not on the constitutional review project,” writes the deputy, alleging that the statutes of Parliament do not allow this committee consider previously a draft revision of the fundamental law.
However, if this is the conclusion, the text of the proposed opinion to which the PUBLIC had access goes further and leaves even Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues in a delicate position. Because if it is up to the President of Parliament to decide whether or not to accept the admission and discussion of legislative initiatives, in this case the constitutionalist also writes that “it is not up to the Assembly of the Republic, however blatant the unconstitutionality of a draft bill may be. review. [da Constituição], prohibit it by means of preventive allegation of violation of the fundamental law ”. Even if, the opinion emphasizes, these revision projects may “suffer serious unconstitutionalities”.
The deputy considers that the person who can analyze André Ventura’s proposals and whether they are constitutional or not and, therefore, whether they should be admitted, is the eventual review committee, which is constituted when a constitutional review process is opened. .
Therefore, it will be Ferro Rodrigues who decides for himself what to do with the project delivered by André Ventura. Among the proposed measures are life imprisonment, the creation of the penalty of chemical or physical castration for those convicted of crimes of rape or sexual abuse of minors, the limitation of the positions of prime minister and minister to those who have original Portuguese nationality , the elimination of material limits of the revision of the Constitution itself or the withdrawal of the term “republic” in reference to Portugal.
In the opinion, the socialist Isabel Moreira takes the opportunity to leave her opinion: “Regardless of the conviction of the rapporteur that the revision project in question contains norms that flagrantly violate the material limits of revision, to the extent that they would de-characterize, if approved, the principle of dignity of the human person and the rights, freedoms and guarantees without which the Constitution would cease to be the same, the seat to make such judgments is that of an eventual review committee, when justifying the vote ”.
This opinion will be discussed and voted on at the next committee meeting, on Wednesday 7, and then sent to Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues. The requests of the President of Parliament to the first committee to rule on the constitutionality of Chega’s proposals have been successful recently and this has led deputies to discuss whether it is up to them to consider whether a diploma should be admitted or not. even if it can be considered constitutional. Some parties claim that the constitutionality inspection is the competence of the Constitutional Court and not of Parliament. Furthermore, this systematic appeal by Ferro Rodrigues is seen as a way to hold the commission accountable when the decision to accept or reject the registration of a diploma rests solely with the President of the Assembly of the Republic.
On Wednesday, the commission discussed two opinions requested by Ferro Rodrigues that considered unconstitutional Chega’s proposals to hold, at the government’s proposal, a referendum to reduce the number of deputies in the Assembly of the Republic and set a maximum ceiling of 12 ministries in the executive.
Telmo Correia (CDS) and José Manuel Pureza (BE) spoke out against Ferro Rodrigues’ call to the commission to examine whether or not the diplomas respect the Constitution, since the president has autonomy to accept or reject entry. of proposals. “This consultation, because it is legitimate, may run the risk of contaminating the judicial process for other considerations, which would be undesirable,” said the blocker. The centrist defended, as on previous occasions, that the general rule must be that Parliament admit all diplomas and that the Plenary appreciate their content.
