LISBON.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, decreed this Friday the renewal of the State of Emergency in Portugal.
“The pressure on hospitalizations and the ICU is worrying,” Marcelo said. “The new State of Emergency ends on 23,” he confirmed. “The idea is not to jeopardize the Christmas spirit”, continued Marcelo, regarding the exception in the measures of the State of Emergency for Christmas.
This Friday, the President of the Republic decreed the renewal of the State of Emergency in Portugal for another 15 days, until 23:59 on 23 December, to allow measures to contain the covid-19 epidemic.
According to the Constitution, this legal framework that allows the suspension of the exercise of some rights, freedoms and guarantees, cannot last more than 15 days, without prejudice to any renewals with the same time limit.
To decree, the President of the Republic must listen to the Government, which gave a favorable opinion on Thursday, and must have authorization from the Assembly of the Republic, which was given today, with votes in favor of PS and PSD, BE abstentions, CDS-PP and PAN and votes against by PCP, ENP, Enough and Liberal Initiative.
In this communication to the country, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa considered that “the pressure on hospitalizations and intensive care, as well as the high number of deaths, continues to be worrying at the moment, despite registering” a further drop in the rate of transmission of the virus and signals clearly positive deceleration in the average number of cases “.
According to the head of state, “the number of infections allows us to foresee that attention to the effort required of health structures throughout the month of December cannot decrease”, even if it is understood that “the second peak” of covid-19 in Portugal “it was irreversibly exceeded”.
This is the sixth decree on the state of emergency of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at this juncture of the pandemic of covid-19. This legal framework was in force for 45 days between March 19 and May 2, and was declared again after six months, being in force since November 9.
The decree of the head of state determines the partial suspension of the exercise of, among others, the rights to freedom and travel, to allow restrictions “in the municipalities with the highest levels of risk”, which can be grouped into levels, “including the ban of circulation on public roads during certain periods of the day or certain days of the week “.
It is recalled that during this afternoon, Parliament approved the renewal of the State of Emergency until December 23, as proposed by the President of the Republic during the night of this Thursday.
A new renewal, until January 7, should be discussed by the Assembly of the Republic within the next two weeks after the President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced a new renewal from December 23 to January 7, 2021 in order to cover Christmas and New Year.
Government defends that new state of emergency allows stability and predictability :
The Government considered this Friday that the presidential decree of State of Emergency (EE) confers a horizon of stability and predictability in terms of rules until January 7 and defended the results of the measures adopted so far. These positions were transmitted by the Minister of Internal Administration, Eduardo Cabrita, moments before the parliament approved the second extension of the state of emergency, until December 23.
In his speech, Eduardo Cabrita stated that this renewal of the EE is done “in a framework of stability and predictability”.
“It is true that the declaration of a state of emergency, under the terms of the law, will only be in force for 15 days”, until December 23, “but in the decree of the President of the Republic a commitment of stability is established, with a view to prolonging until 07 January, encompassing the Christmas and New Year period. Thus, the Government is allowed to take the appropriate and balanced measures that signal the continuation of this collective effort “, declared the executive member.
