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The day after the Government announced that it was going to bring to the Assembly of the Republic a bill to make the Stayaway Covid application mandatory (and the use of an outdoor mask), this Thursday the holiday reactions.
Not even the party that supports the government, the Socialist Party, has a closed position on an issue that other groups have shown unfavorable.
Presidential candidate Ana Gomes also reacted. On Twitter, the former PS MEP wrote this Thursday that “it is unconstitutional to make the StayAwayCovid application mandatory”, because “in addition to the violation of privacy in a country where the CNPD [Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados] it does not have teeth, it is ineffective and has a cost-benefit analysis, it would be equivalent to consecrating discrimination against the poorest and most vulnerable elderly ”.
PS without closed position
The PS parliamentary leader said Thursday that the bench does not yet have a closed position on the mandatory use of the Stayaway Covid application and will request urgent hearings from experts in health, rights and freedoms and data protection.
Speaking to journalists at the end of the meeting of the PS parliamentary group, Ana Catarina Mendes stressed that, given the growing number of the pandemic, her bench “agrees with the mandatory use of masks when there is a crowd on public roads.” .
As for the mandatory nature proposed by the Government – and which will be debated in parliament next Friday – on the use of the application, the leader of the PS bench admitted “doubts about constitutionality” and issues in other fields.
The parliamentary group will embark on this debate and will deliver this Thursday to the first commission a request so that, as of Tuesday, specialists in public health, experts in rights, freedoms and guarantees and protection be heard as a matter of urgency. dice “he said, considering that it would be “inappropriate” for parliament to decide without these hearings.
When asked if his bench does not have a closed position on this issue, he replied: “Of course not.”
Block votes against
The Left Bloc is in favor of the mandatory use of the mask on public roads, but opposes the mandatory use of the Stayaway Covid application and admitted this Thursday to request the unconstitutionality of the law if it is approved.
Speaking to journalists in parliament, the blocking deputy José Manuel Pureza said that “no democratic state” has adopted the mandatory application of screening, which until now has been used by citizens only “voluntarily.”
“This government proposal is going in the wrong direction and causes us great perplexity. There is no reason for us to renounce fundamental principles in a situation like this.”, He said.
In addition, the deputy of the blockade continued, the requirement is “difficult to apply.”
José Manuel Pureza questioned what the inspection will be like and what consequences would failure in a school have: “Will students or teachers be expelled from the classroom?”
PAN “frontally against”
The parliamentary leader of the PAN, Inês Sousa Real, considered this Thursday that the mandatory use of the StayAway Covid application is a “question of dubious constitutionality”, so the party is “facing” the measure.
Regarding the application and installation on the mobile phone, it clearly seems to us not only a question of dubious constitutionality, but that this is not the way to combat covid-19 ”.said the deputy in statements to journalists at the Assembly of the Republic in Lisbon.
The PAN warns that forcing citizens to use this application is contrary to “community directives” and “discriminates against those people who may not even have access to a mobile phone or lack the digital literacy that allows them to know what the use is. of the application”. knowingly, even for the sake of data privacy. “
Inês Sousa Real also pointed out that “the issue of traceability and inspection” also “raises serious doubts.”
Regarding the request, we are directly against it, because, of course, there are constitutional issues that are not clarified and therefore it is putting the house on the roof, it is taking a step forward when we are not yet in a position to do what. such request is mandatory “He stressed, indicating that he looks at the proposal “with many reservations.”
Even so, the parliamentary leader said she was “not in a position to decide” the party’s vote, as they are “very sensitive issues that need a more in-depth analysis.”
In PAN’s view, the use of the StayAway Covid application “should remain optional” as “invasion of the privacy of others” may be at stake and there are “conflicting privacy and data protection issues” . .
When questioning whether there are technicians to work with the data, Inês Sousa Real argued that “collecting data just because it is” is a measure that “is nothing more than controversial.”
The Liberal Initiative says it is unconstitutional
The Liberal Initiative spoke out on Wednesday totally against the mandatory use of mobile phone applications such as stayaway covid, guaranteeing that everything possible will be done to declare it unconstitutional if the Government’s bill imposes it.
In a note sent to the Lusa agency, the Liberal Initiative “demonstrates his total opposition to the intention of the Prime Minister to make mandatory in various social and work contexts, which are practically all those of daily life outside the home, the use of the covid stayaway application on Portuguese mobile phones”.
“If the proposal reaches Parliament, the Liberal Initiative has the firm intention of, by all legal and parliamentary means, obtain the declaration of manifest unconstitutionality of this measure”, anticipates.
From the perspective of the single deputy of the Liberal Initiative, João Cotrim Figueiredo, “any measure of imposition by the State of the use of an application on Portuguese mobile phones is totally unconstitutional.”
“For the Liberal Initiative, the installation of applications or similar tools is only allowed if it is voluntary and is the result of a free and informed decision of each person”, defends.
Greens have “legal doubts”
The Greens see “no problem” in the mandatory use of masks on the street, but have “many legal doubts” about a mandatory screening application to undermine the rights and freedoms of citizens.
Speaking to journalists in parliament, the deputy of the Ecological Party “Os Verdes” (PEV) Mariana Silva said that the vote was not defined, but admitted that it goes against this mandatory application, as proposed by the Government.
“We have many doubts about this system. Here the rights and freedoms of citizens are at stake, knowing where we are”, exemplified.
Enough don’t trust the app
Chega’s sole deputy criticized this Thursday the mandatory use of a mask on the street and indicated that he does not trust the StayAway Covid application, announcing that he will vote against the Government’s bill.
Speaking to journalists in the Assembly of the Republic, André Ventura announced the vote against the executive’s diploma that imposes the use of the mask and the application because he believes that “the situation will worsen.”
“We do not trust this Government” because of the “latest attitudes it has had” and, “when we do not trust a Government, we cannot be asked to trust an application that the Government asks to install,” said the deputy.
As for the mandatory use of StayAway Covid, the president of Chega also refused to enter “into the discussion about whether it is constitutional or not,” claiming that “there have already been opinions from all kinds of different constitutionalists who have given their opinion.”
