The PSD today accused the President of the Assembly of the Republic of not acting impartially and swiftly with regard to the project for a referendum on euthanasia, saying that Santos Silva “does not seem to have been able to remove the PS shirt to do”.
In response, the parliament speaker rejected the PSD bank’s “excessive considerations” and assured that it acted with “the utmost diligence” throughout the process.
“As for the time your party chose to exercise your right is a decision of your party,” added Santos Silva.
The parliamentary incident came after the decision of the Speaker of the Assembly announced at the start of the plenary session – already known since Wednesday – not to allow the draft resolution of the PSD calling for a referendum on the decriminalization of euthanasia to leave. entered parliament on Monday.
The PSD has already announced an appeal to the plenary session of Santos Silva’s decision and the vice president of the social democratic bank Joaquim Pinto Moreira regretted that this appeal could not be discussed today, before the final general vote on the euthanasia substitute text.
In a tense tone and with Santos Silva asking for permission to interrupt Pinto Moreira – unsuccessfully – on several occasions, the debate lasted almost half an hour, between applause from the PSD and protests from the PS, culminating in a “council of institutional loyalty” of Socialist deputy Pedro Delgado Alves on the PSD bench.
“If you’re in a hole, stop digging,” the Socialist bank’s “vice” advised.
According to the PSD bank, Santos Silva “did not act with due diligence”, with Pinto Moreira claiming that the Speaker of Parliament should have sent the Social Democratic appeal to the Constitutional Affairs Commission in time for it to be discussed today.
“He must be the first defender of respect for the rules of the Assembly of the Republic and I believe that in this case he did not respect the applicable rules. I must say in all fairness that the President of the Assembly of the Republic is President of all parliamentary groups with seats in the chamber, he is not the president of the PS, he must act neutrally and impartially,” Pinto Moreira criticized.
And the vice president of the PSD bank continued the accusations against the second figure of the state: “I regret that he did not take off in this particular case, he does not seem to be able to take off the PS shirt”.
In response, the President of the Assembly of the Republic replied that he acted with the “maximum diligence” at all stages of the process, noting that he had met the Conference of Leaders on Wednesday, the same day on which he received the Technical Note of the services that pointed to its inadmissibility (because it was considered a renewal of a Chega initiative that had already been rejected during the current legislature).
Santos Silva emphasized that he even authorized the PSD to verbally announce during the plenary session on Wednesday that it intended to appeal against its decision to refuse admission and issued the order on the same day, after today had received the written appeal from the PSD, which has already been sent to the 1st committee, which will be discussed in the next plenary session.
“If I can be accused of anything, it’s going through the process in an effort to get it done as quickly as possible,” he said.
Regarding the content of the decision, which is also contested by the PSD, Santos Silva stressed that in the past initiatives have already been allowed with the same content as others that had already been rejected “by unanimity in a conference of leaders”, namely with initiatives by the government and parties on VAT, as circumstances have changed due to the increase in inflation.
“In this case, you know that several parliamentary groups, representing three-fifths of the deputies in this house, were against this agreement,” he stressed.
Santos considered “excessive considerations” that the PSD allowed itself to make about her behavior and the shirts she wears, and expressed an intention to continue the work.
However, Pinto Moreira asked to speak again, again to challenge the content of the decision not to admit him, and Santos Silva tried to interrupt him.
“If you’ll excuse me… You won’t excuse me,” the president of parliament complained, letting Pinto Moreira finish his intervention.
The PS also asked to speak through bank vice-chairman Pedro Delgado Alves to support the parliament speaker’s view that he was acting with maximum speed, considering “seriously that the PSD wants to resort to the 27th hour” to a referendum to “try to provoke a postponement of a vote”.
“Even if your project was allowed, it could not be planned today,” he defended, prompting a request to defend Pinto Moreira, who argued that the PSD only now asked for the referendum because the legislative process had just been completed . “stabilized” last week in the Commission.
Source: DN
