Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa briefly spoke to journalists about this matter during the Book Festival at Belém Palace, after SIC reported that he had refused a request for an audience made by the president of Chega, André Ventura, regarding an announced proposal for a referendum on immigration, which has not yet been formally presented in parliament.
The head of state mentioned that, regarding referendums, “the Constitution states that the President can only intervene after there is a proposal from the Assembly or the Government, which still has to pass through the Constitutional Court mandatorily.”
“When the Constitutional Court has validated the questions, then the President can comment. Before that, he cannot and should not comment,” he added.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa emphasized that, in this case, he waited for the formal request for an audience from Chega, “and it is formulated as an audience to assess the matter of the referendum,” so he will have to “wait for the end of the process to be able to receive anyone.”
The President of the Republic stressed that he would receive this or any other party if the request for an audience was about “any other matter,” as has happened before.
When asked if he didn’t refuse this request for an audience because of his position on immigration, the head of state replied that he did not and distinguished these two aspects: “One thing is to have opinions on migration matters, which are very varied, as is proper in a democracy. Another thing is the convening of a referendum.”
“The President can and should only intervene in a certain role, he cannot and should not intervene at the beginning, in the middle, before the Constitutional Court pronounces, when the Assembly of the Republic or the Government have not presented proposals. That’s why I don’t deal with this topic and I don’t deal with it either on my own initiative or at the request of anyone, party or opinion movement,” he reiterated.
The same explanation was conveyed through a note published on the Presidency of the Republic’s website, which states that, “as he has already clarified several times, the President of the Republic does not address matters concerning the convening of any referendum before the respective process is concluded, under the terms of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic.”
“That is, until there is a proposal approved by the Assembly of the Republic, or by the Government, and on whose constitutionality the Constitutional Court has ruled. Therefore, until this situation occurs, he has not scheduled, nor will he schedule, audiences with anyone to address the matter,” the note adds.
According to the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, voters “may be called upon to express themselves directly, in a binding manner, through a referendum, by decision of the President of the Republic, upon proposal of the Assembly of the Republic or the Government, on matters within their respective competences,” or by “citizens’ initiative addressed to the Assembly of the Republic.”
Upon receiving referendum proposals sent by the Assembly of the Republic or the Government, the President of the Republic must submit them to the Constitutional Court for “mandatory preventive scrutiny of constitutionality.”
The Constitution determines, on the other hand, that “referendum proposals refused by the President of the Republic or subject to a negative response from the electorate cannot be renewed in the same legislative session, except for a new election of the Assembly of the Republic, or until the dismissal of the Government.”