The president of the Assembly of the Republic defended this Tuesday that Parliament should not allow police officers to attend the State Budget debate on Wednesday in uniform, claiming that this decision is based on “usual practice.”
José Pedro Aguiar-Branco assumed this position in statements to journalists, after having been the speaker at a lunch-debate in Lisbon promoted by the International Club of Portugal. When asked about the possibility that police officers protesting their working conditions could appear in uniform in parliament on Wednesday to attend the first of two days of debate on the State Budget for 2025, the president of the Assembly of the Republic considered that it should apply the “old regime” still in force.
“I have already made my thoughts very clear on the matter, complying with what is practical. In galleries people are citizens and not representations of professional interests.. They should be in a civil manner and not with their uniforms,” he responded.
Faced with this question, the former social democratic minister reaffirmed that, In the past, this rule applied in relation to nurses, ex-combatants or other professionals, but recently an exception was made for sapper firefighters by majority decision of the different benches.
The leaders’ conference, at this time, said the president of the Assembly of the Republic, is gathering comparative law studies to find out how this issue is treated in other parliamentswith a view to adopting a regulation in this regard, with the objective of “there being no more doubts.”
“The important thing is that there is also the respective advertising [da decisão que for tomada] so that people do not go to parliament by mistake. AND This was what was stated last time as justification for firefighters being able to be present.since they did not know that they could not be in uniform watching” the parliamentary debate, he added.
Until the new regulations are ready, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco understands that the old current regime will apply. “The old regime is the practice of not being able to be [fardados]“Of course,” he concluded.
Source: Observadora
