The President of the Republic said this Thursday that it is not up to him to give his opinion on parliamentary debates or procedures and stressed that it should be a “factor of unity”, after being consulted about the controversies between Chega and Augusto Santos Silva.
The President of the Republic has always observed, in terms of the functioning of other sovereign bodies, respect for the constitutional sphere of that sovereign body,” he declared, referring to the fact that specifically in relation to parliament “they have refrained from ruling on the debates, initiatives, procedures of the Assembly of the Republic” because “he understands that it is not his responsibility to pronounce on these matters.”
According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, “that is the orientation that was adopted in six and a half years” and “it will not change until the end of the second term.”
At the joint press conference in the framework of the first state visit to Portugal by the President of Cape Verde, journalists questioned Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa about his intervention in the cases involving the President of Parliament and Chega, one day after that the President of the Republic received Augusto Santos Silva in Belém and on the eve of the audience he granted to André Ventura’s party.
Furthermore, an important fact, which the Portuguese know well, is that one of the differences and complementarities of the Assembly of the Republic in relation to the President of the Republic is that the Assembly of the Republic represents the Portuguese people in its diversity and the President of the Republic represents the Portuguese people in their unity”, he considered.
For the head of state, “the The president must be a factor of integration, of unification, of stabilization.”
It respects diversity, which is fundamental in democracy, but constitutionally its role is to look at what is the essence of its mission and what is, naturally, to be a factor of unity”, he defended.
Regarding Wednesday’s lunch with Augusto Santos Silva, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that “within the framework of institutional relations maintains regular contacts with the heads of other sovereign bodies”.
This translates into meetings, lunches and dinners, a few times a year, such as at the end or break of a legislative session or at the end of the year. That was the goal of yesterday’s meeting,” he assured.
Regarding the audience with Chega, the President of the Republic pointed out that “in strict compliance with the Constitution and the law, when he receives a request from a political party, whether with a parliamentary seat or without a seat, he receives that political party and listens to what has to say about any topic you want to talk about.”
Source: Observadora
