“This decision of the Constitutional Court is very harmful to the interests of the Autonomous Regions,” said José Manuel Rodrigues in a response released this Tuesday in the archipelago.
The Constitutional Court (TC) on Tuesday upheld the constitutionality of the parliamentary decree decriminalizing synthetic drugs and creating a new distinction between trade and consumption, following the request for preemptive abstract scrutiny from the president of the republic.
During the public reading at the Ratton Palace in Lisbon, Judge Carlos Medeiros Carvalho announced that the “TC had unanimously decided not to rule on the unconstitutionality” of the regulatory norms of the decree approved by the General Assembly of the Republic on July 19 .
According to the holder of Madeira’s main self-governing body, this decision of the TC follows “other decisions already taken, with a restrictive interpretation of the constitutional and statutory powers” of the Autonomous Region.
“But now it gets an aggravating factor as the President of the Republic has expressed some doubts about not hearing Madeira and the Azores in the so-called drug law, and the TC rejects the President of the Republic,” he said. adds: Jose Manuel Rodrigues.
The President of the Parliament of Madeira recalls the words of the former President of the Constitutional Court, João Caupers, who acknowledged in other similar decisions that there was an “ancestor of the centralist tendency of the dominant political culture”.
Following this decision, Rodrigues appeals to all “Madeira politicians to step out of the lethargy around Autonomy and start a process of struggle for a genuine constitutional reform.”
The official states that it is necessary “to expand the powers of the autonomy, to clarify the existing powers and to enshrine the rights of the Portuguese in the islands in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic and in the politico-administrative statute of the Autonomous Regions. to guarantee”.
The president of the republic, who asked for a pre-emptive abstract check on the diploma, announced that he will enact the drug law despite disagreeing with the government on the “sensitive point of determining the amount of drugs in possession” and “after the constitutional provisions” The Court has decided to disregard the position of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of Madeira.”
In the request he sent to the TC on August 17, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa argued that “the regimes in question have serious public health implications, with recognized regional characteristics”.
According to the head of state, “in addition to the regional aspects of public health policy mentioned above, the diploma also has a relevant administrative dimension, reflected in the regional organization”.
The diploma in question was approved in parliament on July 19 with votes in favor of the PS, IL, BE, PCP, PAN and Livre, against Chega and the abstention of the PSD and Socialist deputies Maria da Luz Rosinha, Carlos Brás, Rui Lage , Fátima Fonseca, Catarina Lobo, Maria João Castro, Tiago Barbosa Ribeiro, António Faria and Joaquim Barreto.
In the debate that took place in early July, PSD and PS justified the diplomas on the decriminalization of synthetic drugs with the need to distinguish between dealers and consumers, also warning about the impact of new substances in the autonomous regions.
Madeira had asked the head of state not to enact the new drug law, citing violations of the constitution. In a letter sent to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at the beginning of August, the President of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira warned against approving the diploma without “compliance with the duty to hear the governing bodies of the Autonomous Regions”.
Source: DN
