The Speaker of the Parliament considered that the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Republic gives him the power to expel deputies from the plenary in case of violation or systematic interruption, and even to resort to authority figures.
According to the summary of the meeting of the Conference of Leaders that took place last Wednesday, the President of the Assembly of the Republic informed the parties that the “personal insult and systematic interruption of those presiding over the plenary, or the equally systematic insult of heads of state or other personalities”, questioning “the continuity of the plenary with the presence of the perpetrator”.
“Article 16 of the Rules gives the President of the Assembly of the Republic the responsibility to ensure order and discipline, using whatever means he deems necessary, and that means, to the utmost, to order the expulsion from the plenary , for the remainder of the relevant session, of the offender, to have recourse to the agents of the authority to enforce this order, if it is not complied with,” the summary reads.
Augusto Santos Silva stressed that, with a process of reviewing the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Republic underway, anyone who thinks it is an “excessive power” can act, and anyone who thinks “that another Another type of power should be “of sanctions”.
These statements were made at a meeting in which Santos Silva announced that he would immediately exclude Chega from delegations visiting foreign parliaments following the incident at the welcome session for Lula da Silva on April 25.
According to a note released at the time by the Office of the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Santos Silva informed the Conference of Leaders that “when his travels for official visits to other parliaments involve contacts with heads of state, heads of government and or foreign ministers”, are no longer accompanied by members of Chega.
Santos Silva considered that Chega’s representatives have shown through their practice that they do not “guarantee 100% that they respect these high entities and, in general, the obligations of respect and courtesy that have long characterized Portugal’s external action and distinguished.”.
“This criterion is immediately applicable and means the exclusion of any representative of Chega’s parliamentary group,” the note reads.
In this conference of leaders, it was also determined that at the next meeting, on May 10, two incidents involving members of Chega will be discussed: one, on April 12, with the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Edite Estrela and the second related to the welcome session by Lula da Silva.
In the summary of the conference of leaders it is added that Santos Silva, referring to Chega’s attitude during the session to welcome Lula da Silva, considered that “stand up during the interventions of the speakers, display offensive posters, , interrupting and disrespecting basic rules of courtesy between states was an unimaginable humiliation for Portugal”.
In this conference of leaders, it was also determined that at the next meeting, on May 10, two incidents involving members of Chega will be discussed: one, on April 12, with the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Edite Estrela and the second related to the welcome session by Lula da Silva.
According to the summary, Santos Silva stated that “he intended to hear the Vice Presidents and the Leaders about these facts and, in general, the issues of conduct and discipline in the plenary session, at a specific and autonomous point in the next Conference of Leaders”.
The parliamentary leader of the Bloco de Esquerda, Pedro Filipe Soares, asked that issues related to “acts of racism, machismo and restriction of the freedom of deputies that have been reported” be raised in this discussion as well.
The president of the PSD parliamentary group, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, asked to discuss the news that referred to “insults in the plenary and behavior in the corridors of the São Bento Palace”, supported by the deputies of PAN and Liver.
At this point, Chega parliamentary leader Pedro Pinto said he had not received “any complaint” against party deputies, nor was he aware that they had been submitted to the parliamentary committee on transparency and the statute of deputies.
Source: DN
