The President of the Republic will dissolve the Assembly of the Republic after the state budget has been approved, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced on Thursday, after listening to the Council of State and without this consultative body being in favor of the dissolution.
About five hours after the start of the meeting of the Consultative Body of the Head of State, Marcelo announced to the country the solution to the political crisis that arose after the Prime Minister’s resignation. António Costa should remain in office until he is replaced in the elections announced by the President of the Republic on March 10.
Read the full speech of the President of the Republic.
“After listening to the parties with seats in parliament and the Council of State, as required by the Constitution. The first, clearly in favor. The second, with a draw. So not before dissolution. A situation in fact that had already happened in the past, with other heads of state. I therefore did this by my own decision in the exercise of a power conferred by the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic,” surmised Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
“I did it for countless reasons,” said Marcelo, starting by remembering the “nature of the vote in the 2022 elections, personalized for the Prime Minister, based on his own leadership, candidacy, election campaign and landslide victory.” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also recalled saying this “on March 30 last year, in the inauguration speech of the government, when he spoke halfway about a possible replacement, emphasizing the price of great victories, inevitably personal and deliberately personalized” .
Moreover, the head of state pointed out as a second reason “the weakness of the formation of a new government, with the same majority, but with a different Prime Minister, who is therefore not politically and personally legitimized by the popular vote.”
As a third reason, the President of the Republic cited ‘the risk, already seen in the past, that this weakness would result in a mere postponement of the dissolution until a worse time, with a more critical situation and a more unpredictable outcome, with the government which had lived until then, as a presidential government, that is, supported by the President of the Republic. And the President of the Republic, as an inspiring supporter,” he reflected.
Marcelo then justified the dissolution with the “guarantee of the indispensable economic and social stability provided by the prior vote on the 2024 state budget, even before the resignation of the current Prime Minister is formalized in early December.” With this statement, the head of state confirmed that Parliament will only be dissolved after the state budget has been approved, with the final global vote scheduled for November 29, in order to “meet the expectations of many Portuguese” and “accompany the implementation of the PRR ”. [Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência]that I can’t even stop.”
Moreover, Marcelo assumed that he wants to provide “more clarity and a strong leadership to overcome an unexpected void, which surprised and alarmed so many Portuguese, who are fond of eight years of uninterrupted government leadership.”
“Giving the word back to the people without dramatization and without tumors. This is the power of democracy: not being afraid of the people,” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa reflected.
“I have tried to shorten the time for this decision as much as possible,” emphasized the President of the Republic, assuming that “it has to do with the process of replacing the ruling party” to “elect the people’s representatives,” he concluded.
Source: DN
