The PSD leader appealed on Monday to the chairman of the House of Representatives to make use of “his magisterium of parliamentary influence” so that the Assembly of the Republic again has four vice presidents, who elect the candidates of Chega and IL.
Speaking to journalists at the party headquarters, and after answering questions about the impact of the Italian election results in Portugal, Luís Montenegro left a challenge to Augusto Santos Silva, following criticisms leveled at the PSD for appealed to his bench to vote for Chega’s candidate for vice-chairmanship of parliament in an election that failed for a third time last Thursday.
“Votes in democracy are valid for both the right and the left. I hope that this case is closed and that the President of the Assembly of the Republic uses his magisterium of influence in the parliamentary groups so that we do not get this anomalous situation from just two vices “he said.
Since the start of the legislature, only the PS and PSD vice presidents have been elected. IL has tried to pick its candidate only once.
“I would like to take this opportunity to appeal in a serene and calm manner to the President of the Assembly of the Republic, so that, looking at the expression of the free and democratic will that the Portuguese have in the last legislature expressed, act accordingly and use the magisterium of parliamentary influence so that all 229 AR colleagues can respect democratic rules”he said.
Last week, the PSD party leader appealed for the first time to social-democratic deputies to vote for Chega, but the votes were still insufficient for his election.
“The Assembly has always assigned vice presidencies to the four largest parties in parliament, there is no reason for political differences and ideological differences to break this democratic rule, even if I do not agree with the ideas. I can not more disagree with BE and PCP”he stated, countering that he had voted for candidates from these two parties in the past when they were the third and/or fourth political power.
According to the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Republic, the four largest parliamentary groups (PS, PSD, Chega and IL in the current legislature) can propose Vice-Presidents, but they are only elected if they obtain an absolute majority of the votes of the deputies who be in force.
Source: DN
