MPs attempt to close several pieces of legislation before they lapse
Portugal’s parliament has held a marathon voting session today in an attempt to close several ‘dossiers’ before dissolution, scheduled for next Wednesday.
The aim was to try and close various pieces of legislation before they ‘lapsed’ as happens when parliament is dissolved
The speaker of parliament, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, said he had information that parliament would be dissolved on Wednesday, with effect from Thursday, but said he would clarify this information in the afternoon and notify the parties.
For almost three hours, MPs cantered through a 41-page main script and fourteen supplementary scripts.
Most of the supplementary scripts were never voted on, as they included initiatives that some parties wanted to vote on in the committee stage debate and vote and finalise, but did not meet with the consensus of the chamber – with PSD and CDS always blocking the way.
This was the case with initiatives on the rights of domestic service workers, projects on the child maintenance guarantee fund, support for victims of domestic violence, the extension of the subsidised housing loan scheme to members of households who live with a disabled person, and the extension of initial parental leave, processes that have essentially now ‘fallen by the wayside’.
In the case of the extension of initial parental leave to six months paid at 100%, Livre, BE, PCP and PAN wanted to make oral explanations of vote in the chamber, after having seen their desire to finalise the ‘dossier’ blocked by PSD and CDS-PP, but this was not possible after the CDS parliamentary leader, Paulo Núncio, warned that statements are not normally made when voting on a motion.
“It’s the dictatorship of the rules of procedure. Yes, MPs. After all, there are worse dictatorships,” said the acting president, Marcos Perestrello, in a note of humour, after hearing some complaints about this decision.
The marathon did manage to close a few pieces of legislation: the elimination of inequalities in the attribution of the fixation supplement to prison guards in the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira, a compensation scheme for displaced teachers and the possibility of foster families being able to adopt.
In most of the initiatives, parties also asked for the final draft to be dispensed with and for the deadline for appeals to be waived, in order to speed up the legislative process.
As for the winding up of commissions of inquiry – the commission into possible string-pulling at presidential/ political level being one of the most ‘topical’ – this will have to wait until Tuesday next week. ND
