The return of a more frequent model of parliamentary debate with the prime minister begins to be discussed, in a working group, this Friday. Socialist Pedro Delgado Alves, who coordinates this group, told the Observer that “the goal is for this review of the regiment to be done in such a way that it can come into effect when work resumes in September.”
The Socialists are working on a project to change the model of debates with the President of the Government, joining the different parties that have already delivered legislative initiatives to change this point of the regiment (see below). And the parliamentary leader of the PS, Eurico Brilhante Dias, has already been publicly open to reviewing the frequency of these debates.
There are only two months of parliamentary work left before the summer holidays, but the PS deputy assures that it is time enough for the amendments, emphasizing the need for “the stability of the regiment so that the legislature can move forward,” which is just beginning.
It is recalled that the end of the fortnightly debates was an amendment agreed at the highest level —between António Costa and Rui Rio— in the last legislature. In 2020, these debates, which had existed since 2007, were replaced by bi-monthly debates with the prime minister on general policy.
This Friday’s meeting will serve to set the work method and also him calendarfrom the deadline for the parties to submit proposals to amend the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure.
Some have already been presented, such as the Liberal Initiative and the PAN. In fact, the deputy Inês Sousa Real insisted that this was the first initiative of the PAN to enter at the beginning of the legislature to “guarantee that, in a context of absolute majority, the Assembly of the Republic sees the functions of political control and the scrutiny of government action, which are primary functions of parliaments”.
The PAN project thus defends the return of the debates with the Prime Minister in the format biweeklybut also the strengthening of the rights of the sole deputies, a condition to which the party returned after the January elections.
Deputy Inês Sousa Real now wants single deputies to take place at the leaders’ conference and have more political declarations (six in total) per legislative session, for example.
In the case of IL, João Cotrim Figueiredo established the urgency of this modification of the regiment as soon as he went to Belém, for the hearings in the area of the appointment of the prime minister. At that time he stated that “the absolute majority must give way to a scrutiny much tighter” and defended the “immediate” return of the fortnight with the presence of the prime minister.
IL proposes to go back to biweekly but also to start monthly debates with the Government, bringing ministers to the plenary for sectoral policy debates.
The Liberal parliamentary caucus took the opportunity to add another point to the initiative that it delivered at the beginning of the legislature: that the President of the Government be able to answer before the parliamentary commissions when he assumes “the direction, superintendence or supervision of certain services, bodies, entities or structures” . ”, which is currently not allowed.
In practice, since António Costa assumed direct supervision of European Affairs, IL intends that he himself has to go to the competent parliamentary committee to answer the questions of the deputies on the subject, as the ministers are doing, and not delegate to the Secretary of State who has this folder.
In the case of the presence of ministers, IL wants the same as the Left Bloc, which also proposes that each minister have to appear before the plenary once in each legislative session (each one begins in September and runs until July of the year Next) .
This in addition to also proposing the return of the fortnights, alternated: in the first, the debate is opened by the Prime Minister, and in the second, 15 days later, the deputies open it.
Chega also asks for the return of the fortnights. However, the project that he presented to Parliament to modify the regiment passes, for now, by ensuring that representatives of the four large parliamentary groups are on the Table of the Assembly of the Republic, returning to the issue that marked the beginning of the legislature when two of his candidates for deputies Diogo Pacheco Amorim and Gabriel Mithá Ribeiro were eliminated from the table.
What Chega wants now is for the parties’ candidates to advance on a joint list, “ensuring the representation of the overwhelming parliamentary majority.” The bill also includes a proposal that he intends to “freedom of expression in the way of speaking” in Parliament.
PS doesn’t have a project of his own yet, although he is working on a mockup. The socialist theme of the fortnightly debates was not related to their frequency, but to the model that, even before he became prime minister, António Costa himself had considered stemming from a “stupid” idea.
“I don’t know who it was [que propôs o modelo]but ideas are stupid regardless of who has them”, said the socialist in 2013. The model had emerged from a reform of the regiment coordinated by his predecessor in the PS, António José Seguro, in 2007.
It was only in 2020 that António Costa had a political agreement with the leader of the PSD to carry out this change, but it did not last long. The change left the PSD and the PS isolated in the vote in favor and was heavily contested by the other parties, gaining relevance after the PS obtained an absolute majority.
Even before the elections, the Socialists had expressed their willingness to reverse this much-criticized change, which had the support of Rui Rio. Luís Montenegro, the PSD leader who will succeed him, opposed this position of his party. .
Source: Observadora
