New leader in the PSD, new priorities also in the parliamentary group. This Thursday, at the meeting of Social Democratic deputies, Paulo Mota Pinto was challenged to say what he intends to do when the party has to vote on the referendum proposed by Chega to decriminalize assisted death, an idea that Rui Rio never followed and that Luís Montenegro has always defended. Faced with questions from the parliamentarians themselves, Mota Pinto was evasive and said that the issue would deserve due analysis.

The clarification would only come much later and through the voice of Rui Rio. In Parliament, the still leader of the PSD revealed that, as before, the Social Democratic deputies would be free to vote in the vote.

The decision has the potential to cause some embarrassment among the current leader (Rui Rio), the elected leader (Montenegro) and the parliamentary group, headed by Paulo Mota Pinto and mostly from Rio. The decision made by the still leader of the PSD collides with the usual positions of Montenegro.

Furthermore, the argument used by Rio had already been rehearsed hours before. In a lunch-debate at the International Club of Portugal, in Lisbon, with Pablo Mota Pinto As a guest, the Social Democrat was consulted by José Ribeiro e Castro, former leader of the CDS, if the Social Democrats would agree to vote in favor of a referendum on the issue of euthanasia.

According to the Lusa agency, the parliamentary leader of the PSD recalled that, fundamentally, the party has given freedom to vote to the deputies, considering that it is “a matter of conscience, in which a fundamental issue is at stake in relation to life and death”, and that position must be maintained with respect to the graduates of the PS, BE and PAN who request the decriminalization of medically assisted death.

At the International Club of Portugal, Mota Pinto had left everything open. “The parliamentary group has not yet defined a position on the matter. At the moment it is open, I have heard that this position is defended by the newly elected leader, who only takes office, as he himself said, on the 4th of July. We have to define a position on this. That is why I do not want to be here telling you my personal position”, safeguarded the parliamentary leader of the PSD.

Still, the Social Democrat did not stop expressing doubts about whether referendums involving fundamental rights are fit for referendum. “I’m not saying I’m against it, but I get it who uses the argument”, said Mota Pinto.

Group of deputies wants to know the future of Mota Pinto

Despite being made up mostly of deputies personally chosen by Rui Rio, and Paulo Mota Pinto being elected by 92% of the votes cast, there is a minority in the parliamentary caucus —close to Luís Montenegro— that believes that Mota Pinto I should put the place availablegiven the change in the inner loop.

In this meeting, which was the first since the election, the issue was practically ignored by the leadership of the bench, Paulo Mota Pinto limiting himself to saying that he took the liberty, on behalf of the parliamentary group, to congratulate Luís Montenegro. There were those who expected a position from the president of the caucus, remembering that Rui Rio dismissed the then parliamentary leader, Hugo Soaresas soon as he took office.

During the campaign there was a kind of taboo about the continuity of Mota Pinto. “The party leadership and the parliamentary front have to be in joint”, said Luís Montenegro in the interview with the Observer. His followers repeated that the topic was premature, especially since Mota Pinto himself had not said if he wanted to continue.

PSD/Madeira abstention provokes protests

Another issue that was raised during the meeting of the PSD parliamentary group was the abstention of the PSD/Madeira deputies in the vote on the State Budget for 2022. Mota Pinto expressed his dissatisfaction with the position assumed by the three parliamentarians, arguing that this had violated the voting direction of the party caucus.

In his response, Sérgio Marques recalled the autonomy of the PSD/Madeira, suggesting that the abstention was articulated with Miguel Alburquerque, president of the Regional Government and regional leader of the party. When the matter was expected to provoke further discussion, Paulo Mota Pinto interrupted the exchange of arguments and said that the matter was resolved.

The issue is particularly delicate because Miguel Albuquerque was the national representative of Luís Montenegro. In the past, in 2014, when he was parliamentary leader, the Social Democrat even established a Disciplinary Process to three deputies from Madeira (Guilherme Silva, Hugo Velosa and Francisco Gomes and Correia de Jesus), who voted against the State Budget proposal presented by the then PSD/CDS Government. If the situation repeats itself in the future, Montenegro will have a problem on its hands.

In this context, more stupefaction caused that in the same meeting it was announced that the two deputies from the Azores were going to vote against the rest of the parliamentary caucus the diploma that updates the age of access to pensions and eliminates the sustainability factor in old age pension plans of the general Social Security regime, with some parliamentarians questioning the two weights and measures in this discussion.

*Article updated with Rio’s position on the euthanasia referendum