The president of the republic on Thursday believed that Portuguese democracy is “firm”, that the parliament’s composition “varied from political formulations” is positive and stressed that “there are no absolute powers”.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke at the Palácio de Belém, in Lisbon, during a session of greetings for happy holidays by the Assembly of the Republic, for representatives of all parties with parliamentary seats: PS, PSD, Chega, Iniciativa Liberal, PCP, BE , PAN and Livre.
According to the head of state, “Portuguese democracy has faced difficult challenges”, but “with the objections that may be raised here and there by some sectors of the Portuguese public opinion and, in particular, even by political thought”, must be recognized that “is stable”.
“We are going through the most diverse crises and the Portuguese democracy here is in fact strong in the multiplicity, which your Excellency called very good, of representation in the Assembly of the Republic,” he declared, addressing the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, who intervened earlier.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa pointed to the current “varied political formulations” composition of parliament, noting “This is good – it’s not bad, it’s good”.
The president of the republic opined that “even the fact that there is an absolute majority of one single party in parliament”, the PS, “does not erase that very, very intense experience, and that is good for democracy”.
Then, regarding the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution, which Santos Silva invoked at the beginning of his speech, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa emphasized that “all powers ultimately depend on other powers, there are no absolute powers , that is, one of the riches of democracy”.
In his speech, Santos Silva not only invoked Article 111 of the Constitution, according to which “the sovereign bodies must observe separation and interdependence”, but stressed that the government is politically accountable to the Assembly of the Republic.
“The way parliament, and Your Excellency has stated this, has investigated and controlled it, and should, the government and the public administration, the public authorities in general, is public and notorious,” said Marcelo Rebelo the Sousa. point.
The head of state referred to the audiences he grants to party leaders: “The diversity of points of view is public and notorious, the President of the Republic has his resonance here or when he periodically receives political parties on larger issues, as is the case with the State Budget, or when, of course, they come here on their own initiative to express their views on more specific or broader points of the national situation.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa claimed that democracies in general are “very fragile or inadequate or obsolete due to this accelerated evolution of economic, social, political and cultural factors” and warned of “the number of non-democratic regimes multiplying and the number of democratic regimes who languish here and there”.
The President of the Republic thanked “all” the representatives of parties with a parliamentary seat for the “work done by this Assembly in a very difficult context and in such a short time” and wished that 2023 would “be the memory of the two years of pandemic and a year of war” in Ukraine.
Santos Silva emphasizes separation of powers and complementarity between AR and president
Before the President of the Republic this Thursday, the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, emphasized the separation of powers and the differences between the respective sovereign bodies, but also the interdependence and complementarity.
Augusto Santos Silva spoke in the Hall of Ambassadors of the Palace of Belém, in Lisbon, at a gathering to wish the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a happy holiday and the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, accompanied by representatives of all parties with parliamentary seats: PS, PSD, Chega, Liberal Initiative, PCP, BE, PAN and Livre.
Right at the beginning of his speech, the President of the Assembly of the Republic invoked Article 111 of the Constitution, which states that “sovereign bodies must respect separation and interdependence”.
“This separation and this interdependence are the conditions of complementarity between the sovereign bodies, which in the case of the President of the Republic and the Assembly of the Republic is a complementarity that is very easy to understand: Your Excellency as President of the Republic represents national unity, represents the country in its unity. We, as parliamentarians, represent the country in our multiplicity,” he said.
Santos Silva referred to the Assembly of the Republic as representing “the diversity of the country, the territorial diversity, the social diversity of the country” and “the pluralism of opinions, ideas and proposals presented by the different political forces”.
“And so we fulfill our mission, whether it be our mission as a legislator, or our mission as a center of political debate, or our mission to monitor and oversee the government, which is politically accountable to us,” he stressed.
Subsequently, the President of the Assembly of the Republic considered that it is on this basis that the “complementarity between sovereign bodies, which is the good Portuguese tradition” and which he referred to as “one of the brand images” of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa as head of state.
“That’s why I want to thank you for everything you did in 2022 to consolidate this interdependence and this complementarity,” he added.
At the end of his speech, addressed to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Santos Silva declared: “Count on us so that, in this separation of powers, but also interdependence and complementarity, while preserving all the qualities that characterize and distinguish us, we remain work in the national interest”.
Source: DN
