Portugal does reform its Constitution

An oceanic trench, as deep as the Atlantic one in front of Galicia, separates the two main Iberian states with regard to the reform of their respective constitutions, almost contemporaneous.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
05 December 2022 Monday 22:33
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Portugal does reform its Constitution

An oceanic trench, as deep as the Atlantic one in front of Galicia, separates the two main Iberian states with regard to the reform of their respective constitutions, almost contemporaneous. Faced with Spanish immobility, with two modifications of surgical minimalism and with nothing on the horizon, Portugal begins the procedures for what could be its eighth revision, among which there have been three perforations. The one of now is born with a limited ambition and proposed by the extreme right of Chega, although the final content will not be the one suggested by this party.

The news in the Portuguese case does not consist so much in the fact that the process is already underway, since, for example, the deadline for forming the parliamentary commission for the reform of the 1976 text ends on Friday, but rather in the fact that there has not been any in the last 17 years.

The previous revisions were in 1982, 1989, 1992, 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2005. There was one in process when the 2011 elections were called, in the year in which the troika landed in Lisbon with the rescue of Portugal.

Under international guardianship, it was not the time to touch the text that reflects national sovereignty. Later, as of 2015, there were no conditions either, with the bet of the socialist prime minister, António Costa, to incorporate, in order to survive, the communists and the Left Bloc into governability. As the reforms have to agree with the two big parties PS and PSD, with the first tied to its left, the arithmetic was unfeasible.

The landscape changed with the absolute majority of Costa obtained in January, in an election in which the far-right Chega party experienced a sharp rise, although remaining at 7%, a low mark in the European context. However, the party led by André Ventura occupies the third position, at the head of one of the legion of Lilliputian forces outside the bipartisanship.

Almost two months ago, Chega presented his proposal for a constitutional revision, with castrations for rapists and pedophiles, and tax reductions. It is expected that the Portuguese Magna Carta can be reformed every five years, or less with a majority of 80% of Parliament. The main party of the right, the PSD of the newcomer Luís Montenegro, was hooked on Chega's initiative, which is trying to stop the leaks towards radicalism. Montenegro proposes changes such as reducing the president's terms to one and extending their duration from four to seven years.

In cascade, the PS, which was refractory, was targeted, restricting the playing field. If the conservative Montenegro distanced himself from the agreement of his predecessor Rui Rio with Costa to hold a new regionalization referendum, with the war as a pretext, this is the reason that the prime minister now invokes to rule out "institutional changes".

Costa is committed to focusing on two issues, that of ordering pandemic confinements without resorting to a state of emergency, but under immediate judicial protection, and the control of metadata, the identification of computer files, in the fight against terrorism.

This approach is shared by the President of the Republic, the conservative Reebelo de Sousa, who is not participating in the process. As head of the opposition, he agreed in 1997 with the current UN Secretary General, António Guterres, then Socialist Prime Minister, the last major revision, aimed at electoral and institutional issues. The most relevant was that of 1982, which ended the tutelage of the military that made the 1974 revolution and cut the powers of the president. And the one of 1989 was also key, and economic, of a neoliberal sign. The last one, from 2005, to call European referendums, bears Costa's signature.

Since the Constitution was not submitted to a referendum, neither are the revisions. They are approved with two thirds of the Chamber. The great doubt of the current process resides in whether it will not be a mistake to let Chega set the agenda, even if his proposals are rejected.