The Assembly of the Republic says that in the solemn session of the 25th of April next Saturday, “less than one hundred people” will be present, including deputies and guests, said the spokesperson for the leaders conference today.
Due to the restrictions imposed by the covid-19 pandemic, the Assembly of the Republic had decided last week to hold the solemn session of the 25th of April in parliament with one third of the deputies (77 of the 230 parliamentarians) and less invited, with the Ferro cabinet Rodrigues then estimated that about 130 people were present, compared to 700 last year.
However, despite the fact that April 25 was not a topic on the agenda of the leaders’ conference, spokeswoman Maria da Luz Rosinha said that the matter was “talked about” at the end of the meeting and the two largest parliamentary groups expressed their intention to reduce the number of deputies initially envisaged.
If the PS bench had already said that it would have only 22 deputies (the same as in the current plenary sessions, with one fifth of the parliamentarians), the PSD has not yet clarified the right number that it will have on its bench on Saturday, after initially having appointed a list of 27 people.
“We count that in this session we will have, including journalists – who we also hope will have the due attendance in the number of attendance – a number inferior to the habitual one in day of votes”, pointed out, referring to the 116 deputies necessary to ensure the quorum in those occasions.
According to the deputy of the PS, also not all the guests will be present “some for reasons of age or health” and there will be “a lot of space” for “the few tens” in the galleries of the Sala das Sessões.
Asked, then, how many people are expected in parliament on Saturday, she replied: “Less than a hundred”, she said, estimating that deputies are in the “six dozen” order.
According to the spokesperson for the leaders’ conference, the meeting held on Monday between the services and the General Health Directorate resulted, as Director-General Graça Freiras said today, that “there were all conditions on the part of the Assembly of the Republic to hold the commemorative session ”.
Asked whether masks were advised, the spokeswoman for the leaders’ conference responded in the negative.
“There is no recommendation in this regard, social distance is what is necessary and this is taken care of”, he said.
In the last few days, the controversy around the topic has intensified, with two online petitions in the opposite direction: one that calls for the cancellation of the formal sitting in parliament, launched several days ago, and which was gathering around 7:00 pm today more than 108,000 signatures, while another that defends the celebration by the Assembly of the Republic, posted online on Saturday, had more than 24,000 subscribers at the same time, headed by historical leftist figures such as Manuel Alegre, from the PS, Fernando Rosas, from BE, and Domingos Abrantes, from PCP.
On Saturday, the leader of the CDS-PP, Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos, announced that he would not go to the solemn session of the 25th of April in parliament, for considering him “a bad example for the Portuguese”, and the only deputy of Chega, André Ventura , he wrote to the president of parliament, asking Ferro Rodrigues to cancel the session, saying that it “is generating a huge feeling of revolt and indignation in the Portuguese people”.
Speaking to the newspaper Público on Saturday, the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Ferro Rodrigues, assured that, “more than at any other time, the 25th of April must be and will be celebrated in the AR”.
“Celebrating the 25th of April is to say that no anti-democratic alternative will emerge from this crisis,” said the second figure of the State.
Globally, according to an AFP report, the covid-19 pandemic has already caused more than 170,000 deaths and infected almost 2.5 million people in 193 countries and territories.
Portugal registers 762 deaths associated with covid-19 in 21,379 confirmed cases of infection, according to the daily bulletin of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) on the pandemic.
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