Portuguese President Cavaco Silva may symbolically veto gay marriage in Portugal to pay lip service to Pope Benedict XVI who visits the country this month.
However, because the Portuguese parliament has already voted in favour of the motion, the bill is likely to be passed in any case.
The legal agreement drawn up by the Portuguese Constitutional Court on homosexual civil partnerships has not yet been published and the President can only exercise his right of veto when it is.
“Nothing is certain. All possibilities are on the table and there is a strong possibility that the President of the Republic could veto the law,” said a source close to Cavaco Silva last week.
However, another source close to the president was reported in the national press as stating that the President hadn’t even made up his mind on the issue.
The same source said that “if the bill is ratified by the Constitutional Court then Cavaco Silva can then state his position.”
The President could veto the bill for political reasons, “based, for example, on defending the concept of the family.”
The constitutional expert Bacelar Gouveia said last week that the President “could argue that the bill doesn’t have any merit, that it is bad and should have been put to referendum.”
It would be the second time that the President has used his veto on questions to do with the family – the first was over the Divorce Law.
Whatever happens, after the bill is passed by the Constitutional Court, the President will have 20 days to give an opinion.
Some constitutional experts have been suggesting that the Constitutional Court has not yet ratified the bill because it is waiting until after the visit of the Pope from May 15 onwards.
Chris Graeme
