The second term of the XV legislature will practically begin with a motion of censure against the government, long announced by Chega, and with debates on health care, tax cuts and housing.
The biweekly debates with the Prime Minister, which PS and PSD agreed bimonthly in the summer of 2020, should return on the 27th, but if the leaders’ conference – to be held on Friday – the debate on the motion of censure on the 19th would to rearrange parliamentary work.
According to the new version of the Rules of Procedure, adopted before the summer, debates with the head of government will not take place “within the fourteen days following the discussion of motions of confidence or motions of censure”.
As provided by the Constitution, the new parliamentary term will begin on September 15 and Friday’s plenary session will be occupied by a debate on the National Health Service, at the request of the parliamentary committee in this area, and with an evocation by the poet Natália Correia on the centenary of his birth.
Next week, after Chega’s motion of censure – where the ‘lead’ is guaranteed by the absolute majority of the PS – it will be the turn of the PSD to lead the debate on the 20th, with the discussion of its proposals for tax cuts, including the one it plans. Cut 1,200 million euros from the IRS this year.
The next day another controversial topic: the revision of the diploma with measures in the field of housing vetoed by the President of the Republic, the confirmation of which has already been announced by the absolute majority of the PS, which Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will force the text to be promulgated within eight years. to dawn.
To conclude the long parliamentary week, if there are no changes, a topical debate at the request of the PCP at the beginning of the academic year should draw attention to the plenary session on the 22nd.
Of the main diplomas transferred from the first term, only the tobacco law – which caused controversy on the PS bench – already has a plenary discussion scheduled for the 28th, with the metadata or the reform of the professional orders still on hold. specialty.
During the second parliamentary term, the new Rules of Procedure will come into force, which, in addition to the return of biweekly debates, will also give some more powers to individual debates and, in exceptional cases, offer the possibility of remote plenary meetings and remote meetings. to vote.
The constitutional revision initiated in the previous session will have its results in this session – any change will have to be approved by two-thirds, implying an agreement between PS and PSD -, with the final voting phase in the working group starting in October . .
Among the diplomas ‘inherited’ from the first session are bills from the PS, BE, PAN and Livre providing for the ban and criminalization of so-called sexual ‘conversion therapies’, initiatives from the PS, BE and PAN on legislation for the self-determination of gender identity in schools or for the exceptional regime proposed by the government that will allow mobility voting and the right to vote in advance in next year’s European elections.
In this specialty they are still waiting for diplomas such as one from BE to allow the payment of extraordinary support to vulnerable families by money order and not only by bank transfer, an initiative of the PSD that amends the Statute of informal caregivers (to cover relatives who do not live together with the person and cases where there is no family connection) or bills from BE, PCP and PAN, on increasing, among other things, the minimum quota for Portuguese music broadcast on the radio.
Between the end of October and the beginning of December, parliamentary work will focus, as usual, on the debate and vote on the 2024 state budget, which will be submitted to the General Assembly of the Republic on October 10.
The opposition wants to return to housing construction in the new parliamentary year, while the PS focuses on the Budget
The opposition wants to return to the issue of housing in the second term, while the PS emphasizes the debate on the next state budget as a priority and closes ‘files’ such as the constitutional revision or metadata.
Lusa questioned the eight parties with parliamentary seats about diplomas to which they will give priority during the new legislature.
“The next term of office will begin with three important aspects: from the beginning: the discussion and approval of the 2024 state budget, the continuity of the constitutional revision process and the start of the Working Group for the Revision of the Water Law,” emphasized a source official of the Socialist parliamentary group, who added that he wanted to complete the revision of the metadata law in September.
The same source said that the Socialist Bank will continue with a program to celebrate the 50th anniversary of April 25, which will last until 2025, on the occasion of the 1975 Constituent Assembly elections, without evoking in 2024 the centenary of to forget the party. founder Mário Soares.
For the Social Democrats, a source from the leadership of the parliamentary group indicated that the bank will have as its priority “the reform of the tax system and tax relief for families” and that it will return to debate the party’s proposals for housing – failed in the specialty before the summer – “at the beginning of the work of the new legislature”.
The PSD’s IRS reduction proposals are already scheduled for September 20 and include a maximum rate of 15% for young people or an estimated reduction of this tax by 1,200 million euros in 2023.
Although the government will see its measures on housing confirmed on the 21st (after a veto by the President of the Republic), Chega also maintains the issue on the parliamentary agenda and plans to submit proposals to support the payment of to defer interest on home loans and to reduce taxes for landlords offering student housing.
Diplomas to reduce taxes on fuel or a 50% tax cut for young people in terms of IRS and IRC are other bets of Chega for the new parliamentary year.
IL also plans to return to the issue of housing, after the party presented eleven measures in September, including ending the payment of IMT when purchasing a house and reducing taxes on income.
The liberal Basic Law on Health Care that creates “a truly universal system of access to health care” – with debate in the plenary on September 29 – and the creation of a compensation circle in the electoral system were other highlights of the parliamentary leader from IL , Rodrigo. Saraiva.
The BE also takes housing as a central theme at the start of the session, listing “rent control, the reduction of banks’ margin on interest on home loans and the ban on the sale of houses to non-residents”, with the exception of of Portuguese emigrants, as priority themes.
Referring to details of legislative initiatives later, the PCP prioritizes increasing salaries and pensions, “stopping price increases and the scandal of profit accumulation by economic groups” and “investing in public services and in the development of their professionals”, in addition to general topics such as health care, education, access to housing, as well as “implementing tax fairness measures”.
Livre’s sole deputy, Rui Tavares, also said he will move forward with an initiative titled “Mission More Housing, Better Housing,” which “aims at the construction and rehabilitation of 100,000 homes, or the reuse of old military barracks and other existing infrastructure in the centers of cities so that they can be repurposed as student housing.”
In recent days, the PAN has presented several diplomas that it considers priorities in the parliamentary ‘return’, such as creating extraordinary support for the care of daycare centers or childminders (aimed at children who have not had access to the free of charge announced by the government places), the valorization of specialized art education or the granting of early retirement rights to nature conservationists.
Source: DN
