Flags? Enough threat contribute to fail PSD changes

Nthe Friday, in plenary, will be voted proposals for amendments to the PSD, the CDS and the Aquida to the so-called flag decree, but only that of the social-democratic bench goes further in order to correspond to the reasons invoked by António José Seguro to substantiate his veto.

Today, during the debate on the issue of the review of the presidential veto, Social Democratic Member Carolina Marques argued that the amendments tabled by the PSD “do not ignore the reservations expressed by the President of the Republic”.

“They are based on balance, because they respect Portugal’s international commitments in law, but without abdicating the objective of preserving institutionality in the spaces of the State”, he advocated.

A position that, however, for opposite reasons, was then criticized by the deputy of the Aquista Pedro Frazão and the “vice” of the Socialist bench Pedro Delgado Alves – parties that will be essential for the feasibility or not of the Social Democratic proposal in Friday’s vote.

Unlike the Liberal Initiative, which supports the text presented by the Social-Democratic bench, the leader of the Aça Pedro Frazão accused the PSD of intending “to destroy the law, because it makes an exception to flags linked to international commitments, in campaigns recognized by public entities”.

“Now, this is a huge gate, it is a hole in the law, because any agenda can be presented as an international commitment. The PSD, apparently, wants to make a huge freight to the PS and the extreme left ", said.

Pedro Delgado Alves, on the other hand, described the set of amendments under consideration after the presidential veto as “a mess”.

“By repealing the article that said which flags were not allowed to fly, in which was the exception for foreign flags, it is no longer possible to fly the flag of Ukraine – a flag that was excluded in the article that PSD and CDS now propose to eliminate,” he pointed out.

Pedro Delgado Alves identified another problem: “PSP or GNR may knock on the door of a Board President, or a mayor, saying that a flag has been raised one day and impose a fine on him. They impose a fine on those exercising their mandate,” he said.

Paulo Muacho, a Freeman, said he hoped that the presidential veto “had given some judgment to the PSD, but it seems that this did not happen, because the PSD only read what interested him in the veto text of the President of the Republic.”.

By the CDS, party that was at the origin of the decree in question, João Almeida considered it essential to stop flags of causes that disunify the citizens and expressed disagreements with the position adopted by António José Seguro.

“ It is one thing to respect the President of the Republic institutionally, another thing to agree with the opinion of the President of the Republic. And we totally disagree, because we are uniting and not dividing the Portuguese. We end the instrumentalization of flags for causes. The flags serve the institutions ", stressed.

For the part of the CFP, the parliamentary leader, Paula Santos, considered that the real problems are the increase in the cost of living and expressed itself according to the veto of the President of the Republic to the decree on the flags, approved in the legislative session passed by the entire parliamentary right.

The Member of the Left Block, Andreia Galvão, contested the decree and the amendments in question, countering that “ solidarity is one of the forms of political manifestation”, while Inês Sousa Real, of the PAN, said that these initiatives aim to ban flags from the LGBT movement.

JPP deputy Filipe Sousa said he understood the reasons inherent in the veto of the head of state, warning that neutrality does not mean indifference to humanitarian causes.