“If yesterday taught us anything, it’s that we shouldn’t give up on democracy”, Aguiar-Branco began by saying, addressing the deputies in the Assembly of the Republic. “I do not give up”.
Already taking office, the elected president of Parliament announced that he will “challenge all parliamentary groups to rethink the rules of procedure, particularly with regard to the rules for electing this table, so that what happened yesterday (…) does not happen repeat again.”
“Today I take on a new commitment: that of President of the Assembly of the Republic. A commitment of high responsibility, in which the first of my responsibilities is to represent this Assembly”, he declared then. “I will never stop doing so.”
The vote of each Portuguese person, he continued, “must deserve equal respect from all citizens, even more so from those who, like us, exercise political functions representing the Portuguese”.
Aguiar-Branco admitted that he believes in “representative democracy, in its exercise in relation to the various expressions of direct or popular democracy, or the so-called democracy of opinion”.
“I understand the nature of the role I assume today”, he said.
And once again referring to the impasse that marked the votes for the AR table, the president asked: “if we are not able to understand each other in the house of democracy, what example are we setting abroad?”.
“The Portuguese elected us to be here for four years. (…) We all have to live up to this expectation”, he warned, addressing parliamentarians.
Quoting Miguel Veiga, Aguiar-Branco recalled that “democracy is magnificently fragile”.
Tags: Assembly Republic AguiarBranco elected president Parliament
