The parties accused the PSD this Wednesday of having resorted to a “postponement procedure” to postpone the vote on the diploma on the decriminalization of medically assisted death and questioned the proposal for a referendum at an advanced stage of the legislative process .
Deputy Paula Cardoso, from the PSD, requested that this vote on the specialty be postponed by one week, recalling that her party has tabled a draft resolution in parliament calling for a referendum on the decriminalization of medically assisted death, and that the conference of leaders will discuss the issue today.
“I think it would be important for us to be aware of this decision and it would not be another week’s delay for this issue to be compromised in any way,” the Social Democrat defended.
However, this request was not accepted by the other parties and the final text on the decriminalization of medically assisted death was approved today in the specialty, with votes against Chega and PCP, PSD abstention and votes for PS, IL and BE.
PS deputy Isabel Moreira said that “it is clear to all Portuguese that this is no more than a slow tool”.
“As you can see, what is invoked is what the conference of leaders will analyze. The position of the PS on the referendum issue was already articulated during this legislature in June and therefore the respect that the people waiting for a law have already discussed so much, already so debated, already postponed three times without at any of these times the PSD mentioning this sudden intention to endorse this issue in line with what happened with Chega in June deserves nothing more from us than a no to the hand lying reasons”, he criticized.
Chega, who has already asked for a postponement twice, was the only party to support the PSD’s request, with deputy Pedro Pinto arguing that “it doesn’t make much sense to vote in the morning when a decision on this resolution project”.
The parliamentary leader of the BE, who disagreed with the postponement, also criticized Chega for claiming that the draft resolution of the PSD cannot be accepted as the Constitution states that “the projects and proposals for laws and final rejected referenda are not renewed may be in the same legislature”.
In June (in this legislature), parliament rejected a proposal by Chega for a referendum on euthanasia.
Ahead of the discussion at the Leaders’ Conference, Pedro Filipe Soares rejected that “the right of a parliamentary group to an initiative may prevent another parliamentary group from presenting a related initiative, because the constitutional requirement is that Members cannot repeat initiatives themselves , but it does not prevent the other factions”.
Still, the bloquista deputy accused the PSD of attempting “a fulminating, lightning-fast planning, not found in any regimental forecast”.
“This has nothing to do with other parliamentary groups consummating their own initiative rights, it has to do with the fact that a parliamentary group is not able at the 25th hour to devise delaying means to delay a process that has been going on for several going on for years, not to be consumed for months,” he criticized.
For the Liberal Initiative, MP Patrícia Gilvaz spoke out against the postponement, expressing “serious doubts about the viability of the referendum on constitutional issues related to endorsing unavailable rights, such as the right to life.”
“In addition, I don’t understand why the PSD is only now showing interest in approving this case, it had a lot of time to do so until now, but it didn’t,” and “she is trying to use yet another means of procrastination to get the even more a process that is about to be completed,” he criticized.
Communist Alma Rivera rejected “that questions of fundamental rights should be endorsed” and believed that “this Assembly has all the conditions to decide this subject”.
For the PSD, Paula Cardoso justified the ‘timing’ of the submission of the referendum request with the fact that the text to be included in the law is only now known.
The deputy distinguished the PSD initiative from that of Chega (rejected in June), defending that the Social Democrats “do not follow” that party and that President Luís Montenegro has been defending a referendum “for ten years”.
Paula Cardoso acknowledged that the issue was the subject of “very great maturation” in parliament, but believed that there is “appropriate clarification and sufficient awareness of the people”.
Source: DN
