The PSD chairman said on Monday that he had been calling for a referendum on euthanasia for “almost a decade” before the Chega party existed, rejecting what he called the PS’s “childish arguments”.
After Luís Montenegro announced that the party would submit a draft resolution to parliament proposing a referendum on the decriminalization of medically assisted death, PS parliamentary leader Eurico Brilhante Dias accused the PSD of being a supporter of the agenda of the extreme right. and believed that the PSD president was disowning his own bank.
“I have been defending the euthanasia referendum for almost ten years. At that time there was no Chega and some socialists took their first steps in politics through the hand of António José Seguro. The PS snipers and their childish arguments do not elevate politics “Montenegro replied in a publication on the social network Twitter.
Eurico Brilhante Dias joined the PS secretariat in 2011, headed by António José Seguro, and became spokesperson for the party.
“This intervention by the President of the PPD/PSD is an authentic rejection of his parliamentary group. The PSD parliamentary group has cooperated in a very positive way, working actively in committee and in the working group. This issue has already been postponed three times and on none of those occasions has the PSD faction even raised the issue of the referendum”orphan.
For Eurico Brilhante Dias, the country is “for a pirouette” of the PSD leadership “going after the extreme right agenda”🇧🇷
The PSD chairman justified the referendum proposal by considering that “a controversial issue” such as euthanasia should be decided on the basis of a plebiscite involving the whole population, and argued that the issue had not been the focus of debate in previous parliamentary elections.
“I have no doubt that the Portuguese are not sufficiently informed and I believe that direct democracy, the direct legitimacy of a decision resulting from plebiscite, could lead to a decision in which all Portuguese can review themselves”said.
Montenegro said it expected that the PSD project – which was already delivered in parliament on Monday – could be put to a vote “immediately”, the same week that the initiative-based replacement text would also go to the final vote. IL, BE and PAN for the decriminalization of euthanasia.
“Agrees that medically assisted death is not punishable when practiced or assisted by health professionals by decision of the person, greater, whose will is current and repeated, grave, free and clear, in a situation of suffering of great intensity, with final injury of extreme seriousness or severe and incurable disease?”is the question proposed in the PSD project.
Luís Montenegro announced that “the tradition” of giving freedom to vote in diplomas intended to decriminalize euthanasia will remain on the bench, but there will be voting discipline regarding the “political issue” of the referendum.
However, he admitted that deputies who have already publicly taken a different position on the plebiscite in this legislature can ask for this voting discipline to be lifted.
When the subject was last in parliament on June 9, they were still President Rui Rio – although Montenegro had already won the direct elections, it would not take full office until early July – and parliamentary leader Paulo Mota Pinto.
On that occasion, the PSD Bank was given freedom to vote, both on the four legislative initiatives to decriminalize euthanasia and on Chega’s draft resolution, which proposed a referendum with the following question: “Do you agree that medically assisted death of a person, at their request, or assisted suicide should remain a criminal offence?”
The project was rejected, but the overwhelming majority of the PSD bench (59 of the 70 Social Democratic deputies who took part in the vote) were in favor, in addition to Chega’s 12 deputies.
For PSD, nine deputies voted against (besides PS, IL, PCP, BE, PAN and Livre), according to the parliamentary page: Rui Cruz, Rui Vilar, André Coelho Lima, Carlos Eduardo Reis, Mónica Quintela, Paulo Mota Pinto (then parliamentary leader and whose mandate has been suspended), Sofia Matos, Artur Soveral Andrade and Hugo Carvalho.
Social Democratic deputies Bruno Coimbra and Joana Barata Lopes abstained.
Source: DN
