Parliament’s left wing parties have today recommended that the government activate “urgent procedures” to enable the reception of children from Gaza who require urgent medical care.
The resolution by PAN was approved by the PS, IL, LIVRE, PCP, BE and JPP, with abstentions by all the parties of the right: PSD and CDS (the parties of government), and CHEGA.
According to the recommendation, the executive should, through the national health service, provide “adequate treatment for these children, also ensuring the reception of accompanying family members”.
“Cooperate with the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism and other international institutions to ensure the safe and swift transport of these children,” the text continues.
Parliament also wants the government to “regularly inform” on progress in this process and the number of children taken in.
Portugal recognised the state of Palestine last Sunday, in an announcement made by the minister of state and foreign affairs, Paulo Rangel – and as such the case for taking its wounded children in is even stronger.
A resolution by CHEGA recommending that the government classify the “Cartel de los Soles” as an international terrorist organisation was also approved today, with votes against from the PS, LIVRE, PCP, BE and JPP – as well as abstentions from the PSD and CDS-PP.
The cartel was described as “a criminal structure originating in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela with transnational ramifications”.
Parliament has thus recommended that the executive “formally classify the ‘Cartel de los Soles’ as an international terrorist organisation, recognising its actions as a direct threat to the security of the Portuguese state, the stability of the European Union and the international order, and promoting the inclusion of this designation in European and international mechanisms to combat terrorism”.
In addition, MPs want the government to adopt “all necessary legislative, diplomatic and operational measures to strengthen the instruments of prevention, cooperation and repression in relation to the activities of this cartel, ensuring that Portugal, as a member state of the European Union and signatory to international conventions, is at the forefront of the fight against transnational narco-terrorism”.
Other resolutions were shelved, such as one rather telling one from CHEGA which sought to recommend that the government re-establish “the commercial supply of arms to Israel”, the abandonment of the “current embargo” and that the executive “refrain from unfriendly acts against Tel Aviv”.
A recommendation by IL proposing that the government “monitor the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Angola” was equally rejected.
Source: LUSA
