Luís Montenegro decided to move forward with a constitutional reform project in parliament. That is why it convened an extraordinary National Council next Thursday in a hotel in Lisbon, with the analysis of the political situation and the same project as its agenda.
The PSD leadership defended against Lusa that the ordinary constitutional revision should not be delayed, after the process was started by Chega, promising “a distinctive but realistic project”.
For this process, Luís Montenegro invited university professor and former minister Miguel Poiares Maduro “a few weeks ago to coordinate the work of the PSD in the context of the constitution revision”.
This work is being done “in collaboration with party vice-chairs, representatives of the autonomous regions, with the contribution of constitutional law professors and some former deputies,” he added.
“The group is working internally with the party chairman, with discretion, and only at the end of next week will it be known the conclusions and the text to be submitted to the party organs of the organs to go to the Assembly of the Republic,” said the same source. .
The same party leadership source told Lusa that the PSD understands that “the constitutional reform in Portugal has had a systematic blockade of the PS and determines all this”, and therefore will present its project, despite the fact that “putting this issue on the national political and legislative agenda”.
“After the opening of the process, at least the PSD understands that the regular review should not be postponed,” said the same source, who said the PSD’s goal was to “present a distinctive but realistic project, in a context of limited time.” .
Miguel Poiares Maduro sent all the details about the project after it was evaluated by the party organs, adding only that “the basis of the work” will be the text developed by the previous management even for the “extremely short term “, as they have the 30 days at the end of next week for other parties to present their proposals.
There was already wrong timing
At a time when he was only a candidate for the leadership of the PSD, Luís Montenegro informed Rui Rio, who directly opposed him, that he did not consider it expedient to initiate a process of constitutional review and reform of the electoral system, as the then social president wanted.-democrat.
Rui Rio even dropped the proposals in May this year. In a statement at the time, the party admitted contacts between the candidates (including Jorge Moreira da Silva) and that it was Montenegro who opposed the idea. And the diplomas, all ready, were not handed over for debate and decision.
If at the time there was criticism in the parliamentary bench about the timing that Rio had chosen to move forward with the diplomas and gave Montenegro support to reject this possibility, there are now those who criticize the PSD leader for being “in tow Chega”.
André Ventura, leader of Chega, presented the party’s constitutional reform project in October this year, insisting that the debate begins after the 2023 state budget.
PSD sources also criticized the DN for the possibility that the current leadership would “take” the proposals of the previous PSD leadership to move forward with a constitutional reform project. “Luis Montenegro will now adopt the proposals he has asked Rio to withdraw,” said the same source.
Only in the latest projects, coordinated by Miguel Poiares Maduro, will it be possible to see if much remains of what was presented by the previous leadership. This is because the texts of the Rui Rio directorate – the constitutional revision was articulated with a project for the revision of the electoral law for the Assembly of the Republic – are being revised by the working group “in the light of the defined guidelines” by the current Political Commission and by President Luís Montenegro.
Rui Rio assumed an intention to overhaul the constitutional text in general, and in a diploma of more than 60 pages, the PSD said it wanted to amend 127 of the 296 articles of the constitution, delete more than 30 and remove entire chapters of the Basic Law. reorganize. Law.
Among the main changes to the constitution advocated by the Rui Rio government were the reduction of the maximum number of deputies from 230 to 215, the introduction of term limits for all political functions (including deputies), the change in the duration of the legislature from four to five years and the mandates of the President of the Republic from five to six (with the possibility of two consecutive), in a proposal that strengthened the powers of the head of state, which would now set the date for all municipal elections .
with Lusa
Source: DN
