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The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, considered today that the Portuguese constitutional and legal regime was not designed for pandemic situations and suggested today that it will have to be adapted in the future.
The head of state spoke with journalists at the Belém Palace, in Lisbon, about legal doubts about the restrictive measures of rights that the Government has adopted in the current context of the 19-covid pandemic, such as the restriction of movement between municipalities .
“I know there is a concern, which I also have, obviously, if I were not a jurist and professor of Constitutional Law, that it is necessary to frame the different measures in what we have as a constitutional and legal regime, which was not designed for that. It was not. And there was no time to change it, ”he said.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that in the meantime “there may have been, at the initiative of a political party in terms of revising the Constitution or revising the law these months, the introduction of adjustments”, but “the pandemic continued and, therefore, in the middle of pandemic there was no such opportunity ”.
“In the future, we will see how we adapt what we have to situations as specific as a pandemic,” he added.
The President of the Republic defended that “in this context, it was necessary to use the instruments, tools” available, and “in some cases the jurists understand that they were used with more purpose, in others with less purpose, in some with greater adaptation, in others with less adequacy “. .
“In any case, as you know, the final decision rests with the courts,” said the head of state.
However, in his opinion, “in the midst of a pandemic, it is no coincidence that there is not much recourse to the courts, because people considered that there were reasons of urgency and urgency that justified the measures.”
According to the President of the Republic, “the Government will consider all these observations and will try to find the way.”
“It is good that the Portuguese realize that we are aware of these problems. We’re. Trying to adapt the measures to be taken in the existing schemes. And, on the other hand, without much time ”, he declared.
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