The Constitutional Court decided upon the unconstitutionality of several provisions of the decree that approved the review of the Politico-Administrative Charter of the Autonomous Region of the Azores. I will thus, in accordance with the law, return the respective legislation to Parliament.

I must however advise the Portuguese that there are other provisions in the same decree that in my understanding raise very serious doubts of a political and institutional nature.

Of overall importance is the provision with respect to the dissolution of the Azores Parliament which, with innovation in relation to the existing Charter and to the Madeira Charter, restricts the exercise of the political competences of the President of the Republic, placing into question the balance and the configuration of the powers of our political system as enacted in the Constitution.

In due time, I called this to the attention of several political leaders.

In the terms of the Constitution, the Regional Parliament may be dissolved by the President of the Republic, after hearing the views of the Council of State and of the political parties represented therein.

The legislation in question intends to consecrate the additional duty for the President of the Republic to equally hear the views of the Regional Parliament, its groups and parliamentary representatives and the President of the Regional Government.

This means that the President of the Republic would be subject to greater duties of hearing and consultation for the purpose of dissolving the Azores Regional Parliament than those required for the dissolution of the Parliament of the Republic.

In the case of the Parliament of the Republic, the President of the Republic, in accordance with the Constitution, is not required to hear the views of Parliament itself or of the Prime Minister but, in the case of the Azores Regional Parliament he would have to hear the views of this Regional Parliament itself and those of the President of the Regional Government.

The autonomous hearing of the President of the Regional Government is all the more incomprehensible since he has a seat in the Council of State and his views and opinions are consequently heard by President of the Republic.

The same may be said as to the autonomous hearing of the Regional Parliament and its parliamentary groups since, in accordance with the Constitution, the President of the Republic already hears the parties represented therein.

In my understanding it is perilous to the fundamental principle of the separation and inter-independency of powers, which is the basis of our political system, to accept the precedent, that could be called upon in the future that, through normal legislation, which is the case with the Politico-Administrative Charter of the Azores, duties and limits could be imposed to the competencies of sovereign bodies which are not expressly authorized by the Constitution of the Republic.

Such practice would disfigure the existing balance of powers, and would impair the normal functioning of the institutions of the Republic. This is why I believe it my duty to alert the Portuguese.

I should equally call attention to another point within the same context.

On the 10th of this current month a Parliamentary Law was published regarding the Charter of the Representative of the Republic in the Autonomous Regions, in which it is stipulated, as anyway foreseen under the Constitution, that the Representative is appointed and discharged by the President of the Republic after hearing the Government.

On exactly the same issue, the decree of the Parliament of the Republic that approves the new Charter for the Azores adds the duty for the President of the Republic to also hear the Regional Parliament.

The hearing of the Regional Parliament through its Speaker is not questioned. This I did, upon taking office, when I appointed the Representatives of the Republic for the Azores and for Madeira – a practice which I anyway followed when I held the office of Prime Minister and which I intend to keep as President of the Republic.

But if that hearing includes the parliamentary body itself, negative consequences could emerge in the appointment procedure of the Representative.

On the one hand, because it could place the President of the Republic in the midst of a regional parliamentary debate and, on the other, because it could weaken politically the Representative of the Republic and cause difficulties in the choice of an individuality with the required personal characteristics.

I also believe that other innovatory provisions contained in the Charter should be reconsidered.

On the one hand, “the procedure of qualified hearing” that, due to the ties it creates for the sovereign bodies involved, restricts their powers of decision, greatly overcoming the regulation of the right of simple hearing foreseen in the Constitution.

On the other hand, the limits placed upon the powers of review of the Charter by the Parliament of the Republic to the provisions which were introduced by the Azores Regional Parliament implies excessive restrictions to the supervening power of the National Parliament to introduce legislation

In view of the uncertainties faced in these modern times, the possibility of petrifying the juridical provisions of the Charter, to the point of their becoming eternal, should be considered with great care.

The change to the Politico-Administrative Charter of the Azores aims to bring into effect the advanced model of autonomy resulting from the 2004 constitutional review. But it is indispensable that this change is harmonized with the separation of powers and with the competences of the sovereign bodies consecrated in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic.