Efe Lisbon

Lisbon

Updated Wednesday, March 27, 2024-19:45

  • Giro in Portugal Podcast

The Parliament of Portugal elected this Wednesday the conservative deputy

José Pedro Aguiar-Branco

as its president after the agreement reached between the center-right coalition that won the elections, Democratic Alliance (AD), and the Socialist Party (PS) to rotate the position .

The candidacy went ahead with the support of 160 deputies with a quorum of 228, after the

unprecedented pact

that stipulates that Aguiar-Branco will lead the Assembly of the Republic for two years, until 2026, and

a socialist will take over the following two legislative sessions, until 2028

.

To know more

International.

Portugal's Parliament, unable to elect a president, meets to vote again

  • Editorial: EFE

Portugal's Parliament, unable to elect a president, meets to vote again

Elections.

Portugal, in a technical tie: and now, what?

  • Editor: LUIS ÁNGEL SANZ (Special Envoy) Lisbon

Portugal, in a technical tie: and now, what?

The other candidate for the Presidency of the chamber,

the far-right Rui Paulo Sousa, from the

Chega party

, received 50 votes in favor

(the same number of deputies available to his party), while 18 parliamentarians voted blank.

After his victory was announced, Aguiar-Branco got up from his seat to sit at the table of the unicameral Assembly of the Republic to replace the one who has been the

temporary head of this body since yesterday, the communist António Filipe

, the most congressman. ancient.

In his speech,

Aguiar-Branco, a member of the Social Democratic Party

(PSD), which AD heads, assured that he sees the position as a "commitment of high responsibility" and promised "loyalty" to the chamber and to represent "all deputies." .

"If we are not able to understand each other

in the house of democracy, what example are we setting outside?" questioned the 66-year-old conservative, who warned that

parliamentary work "does not have to be turned into a spectacle

. "

In what was the fourth vote in less than 24 hours, Parliament put an end to the impasse it had been in since yesterday, Tuesday, because no candidate presented by the parties had achieved the minimum of 116 votes to be elected.

Regarding the drama experienced since Tuesday in the chamber, Aguiar-Branco said that the lesson can be learned that we should not give up on democracy and urged the deputies to "rethink" the regulations so that this situation does not happen again.

His election occurs hours after AD and the PS reached an agreement to have the rotating presidency of the chamber, after a meeting of its leaders, Luís Montenegro and Pedro Nuno Santos.

This controversy has arisen due to the complicated political situation left by the March 10 elections, with AD, with 80 deputies; followed by the PS, with 78; and the far-right Chega, with 50 seats.

Tomorrow, Montenegro is scheduled to present to the president of Portugal, the conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the composition of its future Executive, before he takes office on April 2