PSD/ CHEGA ‘verbal agreement’ to vote in new parliamentary leader fails
The first day of Portugal’s new parliament got off to a shaky start – and then descended into unprecedented ‘confusion’ (see below).
Initial upset began with left wing parties complaining bitterly about the decision to allow CHEGA to propose a vice-president (as the Constitution allows).
But the major wobble, which later dragged parliamentary business to a new low, came in the voting for parliament’s new ‘president’ (similar to the Speaker in UK): PSD/ CHEGA had reportedly agreed on the name put forwards by the former (José Pedro Aguiar Branco – a seasoned politician/ former defence minister), but the first vote saw him fail to make the cut: 134 of the votes received were ‘blank’ (not filled out), seven were ‘spoilt’. A second vote was due to go ahead later, as we wrote this text.
Meantime, CHEGA has put forwards their oldest MP, Diogo Pacheco de Amorim – a former CDS militant – as a vice-parliamentary president, saying they hope his appointment will “settle scores” (after years of open discrimination in parliament) and pave the way to a “new cycle”.
Speaking to journalists, CHEGA leader André Ventura said that the choice was based on “the political experience of Pacheco de Amorim, and “recognition of (his) life journey“.
“This is a constitutional requirement that has now been fulfilled. I hope that today a new cycle opens up, a new way of working in the Assembly of the Republic, that a broad right-wing majority can work democratically,” he said, also hoping that “important reforms can move forward in the first days of this legislature”.
CHEGA intends to propose Gabriel Mithá Ribeiro as secretary of the parliamentary bureau, Filipe Melo as vice-secretary and Pedro Frazão for the administrative council.
When asked who will be the party’s parliamentary leader, Ventura said that he had not yet decided, and would submit his proposal to the caucus by the end of the week.
But while this conversation was being relatively calmly reported, noise coming from the smaller parties in opposition was focused on CHEGA ‘not being able to be trusted’, as it is clear that it was the ‘blank votes’ of many CHEGA MPs that did for the first vote to elect Aguiar Branco, while left wingers (naturally) were against his nomination.
IL leader Rui Rocha said: “There are parties that cannot be trusted. They are here for permanent chicanery“, while Paulo Muacho, an MP for left-leaning LIVRE, said: “We already warned that when you give your hand to the far right, you end up with your arm being eaten…”
Things steadily deteriorated from this point
A second vote in which PS Socialists put up their candidate Francisco Assis saw Assis poll two votes more than Aguiar Branco, but still far short of the 116 votes necessary to elect a parliamentary president – and then a third, well after midnight, was equally inconconclusive.
Every party by this point was ‘lamenting the circus‘ that had developed in the country’s seat of power: the decision being to reconvene on Wednesday, for a new round of voting from midday.
Parties have until 11am Wednesday to ‘present their candidates’, while the message from CHEGA’s leader appears to be that he wants a meeting with Luís Montenegro (the country’s prime minister-in-waiting) to thrash out an ‘proper agreement with the right’ (one that will secure the current government at least part-way through the next legislature): the agreement Montenegro has said repeatedly ‘will never happen‘.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
