At the meeting of the final constitutional revision committee this Tuesday, the amendments to article 256 of the constitution on the administrative regions took up most of the debate time, with proposals from PCP, BE and Livre.
Currently, the constitution stipulates that the establishment of regions depends on the “favourable vote expressed by the majority of citizens entitled to vote who have expressed themselves in direct consultation, of national scope and in relation to each regional area”, something that the communist Paula Santos considered “an obstacle” to regionalization.
For BE, former coordinator Catarina Martins — who proposed the repeal of the standard — defended that this article is a “massive democratic hypocrisy”, advocating that “it was made so that there would be no regionalization” and “with all the genius of our current president of the republic [Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa] who did not want regionalization”.
Rui Tavares, from Livre, believed that it is not “politically sustainable” to proceed with regionalization without a referendum, as there was a public consultation on the subject in 1998 – in which “no” won with 60% of the vote.
The lone MEP suggested that the referendum, “already compulsory and already complicated because it involves two questions, could include a third: to allow the creation of a region [administrativa] pilot region if that region’s voters approve the creation of the pilot region by a majority and if mainland voters agree to the establishment of regions [administrativas] pilot” — proposal rejected by the remaining political forces.
For the PS, which together with the PSD represents two-thirds necessary for any amendment to the constitution, deputy Pedro Delgado Alves defended that the one who should decide on the issue “should be the Portuguese”, since “the option that is on the table in 1998 this was, recalling that the socialists campaigned for regionalization and that “the country would benefit from its development if it had already made this strategic decision a few years ago”.
The social democrat André Coelho Lima also believed that after the public consultation in the late 1990s it was “not logical” not to have to resort to a referendum again, regardless of your position on this subject. and he added that in the PSD there are different opinions for (like his case) or against regionalization, like Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Coelho Lima questioned the socialists’ favorable position, arguing that the PS “has been in power for many years” and has been available in recent years on the part of some PSD leaders to move forward, saying that ” if no steps have been taken in one direction it is because they objectively did not want to give themselves”.
In the reply, Pedro Delgado Alves argued that the PS is “doing everything they can to get things prepared and organized for the day when, while a referendum is taking place, the Portuguese face a map, face skills, face a financial envelope. a decision”, but Coelho Lima maintained the criticism.
Bruno Nunes, from Chega, defended the need for a new referendum, as did João Cotrim de Figueiredo, from IL, who stressed that it cannot be a question of yes or no, but with questions about “a concrete map, a concrete division of powers and concrete budget implications”.
In the closing notes, the PCP blamed both the PS and the PSD for not creating administrative regions and Catarina Martins, from BE, stressed that withdrawing the article on the referendum does not prevent it from going ahead, it “adds” the theme just not up to it. to a public consultation.
In another debate on local power, the parties favored the PCP’s proposal to include in Article 242 that “the dissolution of municipal bodies and the loss of the mandate of their holders may only be caused by grossly unlawful act or omission and may only be enforced through judicial means”.
Emília Cerqueira, from the PSD, said she personally sympathized with the idea, demonstrating the bank’s openness, and pointed to “the populism and the ease with which people sometimes judge hasty political office holders these days”.
Source: DN
