The PS announced this Wednesday the vote against BE and PAN projects to strengthen parity in the Constitutional Court (TC) for violations of the Constitution, but admitted to sanctifying this principle after the process of revising the Basic Law.
“This is a difficult day for those who defend parity,” said the leader of the socialist group, Eurico Brilhante Dias, at a press conference, justifying the opposite position of the PS regarding diplomas aimed at greater gender equality in the collective of TC judges, a subject that also caused division among representatives of his parliamentary party.
On the one hand, in defense of the immediate introduction of more parity in the TC, especially was the constitutionalist and member of the National Secretariat of the PS Isabel Moreira; on the other hand, there were socialist deputies such as Cláudia Cruz Santos and Joana Sá Pereira, either because of serious doubts about constitutionality or because of principled opposition to the existence of quotas in the justice sector.
In the Parliamentary Group of the PS, as reported by Eurico Brilhante Dias to journalists, the position prevailed that the projects of the Left Bloc and PAN violate Article 222 in this Wednesday’s vote. of the Constitution of the Republic, and therefore the socialist bank (majority) will disapprove them.
“The PS has fought for equality between men and women, we have made progress in a very wide range of instruments. But today the PS will vote against the PAN and Bloc diplomas for one single reason: as they are presented, these projects violate the Constitution, namely Article 222 of the Constitution”, argued Eurico Brilhante Dias.
The chairman of the PS group insisted that this violation of the Constitution is “obvious”, because the composition of the TC is laid down in Article 222. of the Basic Law, in particular number two.
In this regard, the leader of the socialist group referred that a process of constitutional revision is underway in the Assembly of the Republic, which “has Article 222 open”.
“Within the limits set by the decision of the Political Committee of the PS and of any other mandate that this body may have, the parliamentary group will consider this issue as important and which we would like to see resolved in order to overcome the blockade of a constitutional nature. overcome.”, declared Eurico Brilhante Dias.
However, given the projects of the PAN and Bloco de Esquerda, the Socialist Bank will currently “have heard several personalities on this issue” abandon them, although it intends “to work quickly on this situation in the near future overcome”, noted later.
In this regard, Eurico Brilhante Dias left another comment: “The defense of the Constitution applies to all majorities and applies to all majorities of circumstances”.
“It will also apply to a circumstance where the PS is a minority” in the Assembly of the Republic, he added, before assuming that there will be freedom to vote in the PS bench in view of the Bloc and PAN projects.
Here Eurico Brilhante Dias stressed that freedom to vote for the socialist bench is a principle that the PS inherited from the leadership of António José Seguro.
Asked about the fact that a group of PS deputies had publicly tried to disown socialist leader Isabel Moreira – and allegedly without prior notice – through an article in the newspaper Público, the president of the socialist bank claimed that “the PS is an open and plural party”.
“There is room for individual opinions, but the vote is decided at the meetings of the parliamentary party. We have several female MPs and male commentators in different media and this was a specific case,” the chairman of the PS parliamentary party downplayed.
Source: DN
