The general policy debate with the prime minister in parliament has shrunk to less than half in the current legislative session following a regiment revision that provides for the alternate presence of the head of government and line ministers.

At the current meeting, which began on 15 September, four general policy discussions with Antonio Costa took place in Parliament, to which were added four sectoral debates with ministers versus ten debates with the prime minister held every two weeks in the previous session.

According to Lusa reporting, on October 7, 2020, January 19, March 17, the Prime Minister answered the questions of the deputies in a new model of debate – two rounds instead of one and twice as long, almost three hours. and May 12, 2021

In the previous legislative session, which began only at the end of October 2019 in connection with the legislative elections and which was already taking place partly under the conditions of a state of emergency (which reduced the number of plenary sessions in the Assembly of the Republic), ten debates were held every two weeks, the round lasted only about ninety minutes.

If you return to 2018, at the last legislative session of the previous legislature (which began as usual on September 15), Antonio Costa appeared in parliament for a two-week debate, in addition to other speeches to participate in discussions such as the discussion on State Budget, State the budget of the nation or the debate on European issues, which remain in the current version of the regiment.

At the current meeting, according to the data provided to Lusa by the Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs, the Prime Minister responded to the MPs, in addition to four debates on general policy, in four debates on European issues (the same number as in the previous session) and in the topic of debates at the beginning of the session at the request of the Government for a Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Antonio Costa also attended, but did not speak, in three other debates in the Assembly of the Republic on the renewal of the state of emergency, in addition to the plenary sessions on voting in general (in which he opened the discussion) and the general final of the State Budget for 2021.

The prime minister will also return to parliament at the current legislative session next week for the traditional political debate ahead of the parliamentary break, a debate on the state of the nation on Wednesday.

The government’s presence in plenary meetings is increased with four debates with ministers, mandatory since the last revision of the regiment (the possibility of sectoral debates already existed, but was rarely used by the parties or the government).

The government chosen to “debut” the new parliamentary rules was Pedro Siza Vieira, Minister of State, Economy and Digital Transition on 11 December, and Augusto Santos Silva, Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, in March. April – Minister of State and Presidential Minister Mariana Vieira da Silva, and in June – Minister of Environment and Climate, João Pedro Matos Fernandez.

About a year ago, on July 23, 2020, only PS and PSD approved the new Regiment of the Assembly of the Republic, which, among many changes, ended with a two-week debate model with the Prime Minister in effect since 2008, replacing o with monthly debates with the government.

The current model provides that the debates with the Government will be held in two alternating formats: one month with the Prime Minister on general policy, and the next, on sectoral policy with the Minister of the Ministry, whether the head of government may or may not be a gift.

The end of the two-week debate earned opposition from other parties and individual MPs, and was also contested in the PS benches – they voted against 28 MPs and five abstained, which is inconsistent with the discipline of voting for the Socialists – and in the PSD, in which even with the discipline of voting by council, seven deputies voted against.

The bi-weekly debate was launched after a 2007 call by then CDS-PP leader Paulo Portas to the Socialist Prime Minister Jose Sokratis, and lasted 12 and a half years, starting January 9. , 2008 and June 3, 2020

Previously, the monthly debate model was agreed with the prime minister, who was then Antonio Guterres, during the PS period in 1996.