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Parliament approved this Friday the renewal of the state of emergency, which will allow the Government to present measures to combat the pandemic depending on the region. In the Assembly, only PS, PSD and the non-registered deputy Cristina Rodrigues voted, but the Minister of Internal Administration, Eduardo Cabrita, wanted to highlight the support of “more than 90%” of the deputies for the viability of renewing the state of emergency, at a time when a study points to a reduction in Portuguese support for the measures adopted by the executive.
“More than 90% of the deputies of the RA expressed a position that translates into the viability of this second period of the state of emergency“Said the minister, in the debate on the decree to renew the state of emergency. In addition to the votes in favor of the PS, PSD and Cristina Rodrigues, the document abstained from BE, CDS and PAN.
Eduardo Cabrita thus intended to underline the broader support that Parliament has for the renewal of the state of exception, at a time when doubts among the Portuguese are growing about the measures that the Government is taking based on declarations of states of exception.
The Covid-19 Social Opinion Barometer shows that if at the end of March only about 25% of those surveyed considered that the measures were scarce or inappropriate, 50% now have this opinion – the highest percentage on record so far.
Despite having been approved in Parliament, many fears were revealed there, from left to right. – on the impact that restrictive measures have on the economy and, in particular, in the restaurant sector, which this weekend should end both days, starting at 1 pm. “The recipe is wrong”, With the Portuguese“ pushed ”into poverty,” said João Oliveira do PCP, with BE and CDS asking for reinforcement in the social response.
During the parliamentary debate, some ideas were still visible in the parties’ reading about the time ahead. PSD and CDS accused the Government of favoring the PCP by allowing the communists’ congress to take place at a time when the pandemic is registering record numbers (the congress is scheduled for the weekend of November 28 and 29), while On the left, BE and PCP fear that the private health sector’s profits will increase with the increase of its presence to reinforce the response of the National Health Service (SNS).
“Some have to stay home or close their establishments, others may join hundreds in the most critical weekend of the pandemic. Why? Because they are from the PCP and the PS needs more and more of them even to approve the State Budget, “said centrist deputy Telmo Correia. The PSD parliamentarian had already touched on this point before:”Millions of Portuguese locked at home, a few hundred communist activists in a happy convention life”.
The defense of the congress was in charge of the PCP, but also of the Government, with Eduardo Cabrita using the law approved in 1986, during the Cavaco Silva government, which provides legal coverage to the meetings of the statutory bodies of the parties in state settings of emergency. “The presidential decree cannot prohibit what is prohibited by law“Says the minister.
Regarding the involvement of the private health sector in the response to this second wave and the way in which the State must manage compensation, Pedro Filipe Soares, parliamentary leader of the Bloc, defended that the Government’s decision to oblige individuals to get into this fight. adding that “we must not get lost in the negotiation between the government and the private sector”. João Oliveira, the communist parliamentary leader, defended that as in the previous renovation – for 15 days – the declaration of a state of emergency constitutes “a roadmap to do private business with public money under the pretext of a pandemic.” The Greens dropped the proposal: “the nationalization of pandemic benefits.”
In the debate, the minister wanted to leave the guarantee that the pandemic “does not suspend democracy”, that there will be no “abuses” by the security forces that ensure compliance with the regulations and spoke of very serious figures regarding the evolution of the number of infections. The Government presents this Saturday the measures that it wants to apply in the next 15 days, between November 24 and December 8, and that will be differentiated according to the level of risk in the municipalities. Cabrita says that “the number of municipalities will almost certainly exceed two hundred” compared to the current 191.
