Surprise: Aguiar-Branco fails election for new President of the Assembly of the Republic – Politics

Contrary to all expectations, social democratic deputy José Pedro Aguiar-Branco failed his first attempt at election as the new President of the Assembly of the Republic. Augusto Santos Silva’s successor was the only name on the ballot and gathered 89 votes in favor, 134 blank votes and 7 invalid votes.

This is a surprising result after André Ventura announced, this Monday, that Chega would vote in favor of Aguiar-Branco’s name following an agreement in which the PSD committed to approving the name of Diogo Pacheco de Amorim for the vice-presidency of the AR. The votes are secret, so it is not possible to understand exactly who each of the deputies voted for, but Pedro Frazão, Chega’s deputy, has already commented on the social network X with irony.

The right-wing parties, without Chega – Liberal Initiative, which announced that it voted in favor, PSD and CDS – total 88 deputies, one less than the total number of deputies who voted in favor.

Each deputy was called to the front of the plenary to sign a term of inauguration, a new feature of this legislature, and, subsequently, cast their vote in the ballot box in a process that lasted approximately two hours and was presided over by the communist deputy António Filipe.

The vote is secret and only the Left Bloc revealed that it did not vote in favor of the social democratic name. Before the votes, Pedro Nuno Santos said there was no voting discipline in the PS but criticized the Social Democrats for voting in favor of Pacheco de Amorim’s name as vice-president of the AR.

Aguiar-Branco was Minister of Justice in the Government led by Santana Lopes between 2004 and 2005 and Minister in the Government led by Pedro Passos Coelho between 2011 and 2015. He led the PSD parliamentary group in 2009 and 2010. Also in 2010 he ran for leadership of the PSD , having lost to Passos Coelho. He also worked as a lawyer.

The election of vice-presidents of Parliament is still scheduled for this Tuesday afternoon. Teresa Morais (PSD), Marcos Perestrello (PS), Diogo Pacheco de Amorim (Chega) and Rodrigo Saraiva (Liberal Initiative) are running.

André Ventura accuses AD of denying agreement

André Ventura has already spoken out accusing Nuno Melo, from the CDS, of having, throughout the morning, denied the agreement between the two parties which was based on the “exchange currency” of making the President and Vice-President of the AR viable.

“All morning today, I said that there was no agreement. That there was no agreement at all. And, therefore, the PSD has to be responsible once in its life. Which is to realize that either there is an agreement or there is no agreement. Today in the morning I said there was no agreement”, he stated. At issue are this morning’s statements by the CDS leader in an interview with SIC Notícias in Parliament.

“I heard Nuno Melo’s statements today. I think they were broadcast in several places, including on several televisions. Therefore, what I hope is that there will be a rethinking of the strategy and I hope, because I say again,
Chega is open to this understanding. If so, we will be here. If they simply want to humiliate and trample us, we will not be available”, he also added.

Despite insisting that there is still room to reach an agreement with the PSD, he assured that deputies were instructed to comply with the agreement and vote on Aguiar-Branco’s name, but that the vote is secret and, therefore, it is not possible to understand Chega’s deputies were the ones who made Aguiar-Branco’s election unfeasible.

“I only gave an indication. It was to vote and make this name viable. What I am underlining is that, if it happened that some did not do it. (…) The vote is secret for a reason. Because it is secret And I respect this democracy.

PSD and Chega ask for a break

As soon as the result was known, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, PSD deputy, asked the panel chaired by António Filipe for a half-hour break. André Ventura, from Chega, also asked for the work to be interrupted.

(in update)