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Mister Speaker,

Excellency.

Having received, for enactment as law, Parliamentary Decree No. 160/X, which approves the structural organization of the National Republican Guard, I have decided, in the terms of §1 of article No.136 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, not to enact this legislation, based upon the following grounds:

1. Parliamentary Decree No.160/X, which approves the structural organization of the National Republican Guard, relates to functions of national sovereignty and is thus of great relevance, whether in the shaping of the National Republican Guard as a security force, whether in the obvious implications it has in the organization of national defense and in the missions of the Armed Forces as well.

This latter statement is proven by the military nature of the National Republican Guard; in its mission to “cooperate in the execution of the national defense policy”; in its attribute to “perform, within the area of the execution of the national defense policy and in cooperation with the Armed Forces, the military missions it is committed to”; in the possibility of the Guard being placed under the superior command of the Armed Forces, in the terms of the Law of National Defense and of the Armed Forces and in the Regime of the State of Siege and of the State of Emergency; in its dependence from the Minister of National Defense as to “the uniformity and the standardization of the military doctrine, armament and equipment”; in the subjection of its personnel to the “military condition”; in the mission that is now required of the Guard in Portuguese territorial waters.

2. The reflections in the organization of national defense and in the Armed Forces are particularly highlighted in the changes introduced by Decree No. 160/X at the level of the command structure of the National Republican Guard and in creating a professional sub-category of general officers specifically for the Guard.

Such changes do not benefit the required complementariness between the Armed Forces and the National Republican Guard and would contend with the balance and coherence currently existing between both forces and their relationship, and could negatively affect the stability and cohesion of the military institution which the President of the Republic is duty bound to maintain, equally considering the inherency of his functions as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.

3. It is unnecessary to point out the desirability that sensitive matters in the areas of national defense and security, as is the case with the legislation contained in Parliamentary Decree No. 160/X, were to be the object of a parliamentary political and juridical consensus which, as is well known, was not the fact.

4. The nature, the relevance and the importance of the matters at issue would as such advise that some of the legislative solutions included in the proposed law be the object of additional political consideration by Members of Parliament.

5. The Decree under consideration states that the commanding officer of the National Republican Guard be a lieutenant-general, the appointment implying ranking as a general, which is currently not the case. It equally states that the commanding officer be appointed by a joint order issued by the Prime Minister and the ministers responsible for national defense and home affairs, once the Council of Chiefs of General Staff has been heard, should the appointee be a general in the Armed Forces.

6. No immediate reason can be found for this change in the commanding structure of the Guard, since it is not comparable, in its complexity and in its functional and operational demands, with the Chief of the Armed Forces General Staff or with any of the three branches of the Armed Forces.

The attributing of the rank of general to the commanding officer of the National Republican Guard is not just a question of protocol or form. On the contrary, the attributing of the rank of general to the commanding officer of the National Republican Guard is a matter of great responsibility, and a significant change to the current regime, and seriously contends with the existing balance within the military chiefs and with the organization of national defense.

7. In accordance with the Charter of the Armed Forces, the rank of general currently corresponds solely to those military appointments which the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic recognizes as particularly relevant, committing to the President of the Republic the competence for the appointment or dismissal of the Chief of the Armed Forces General Staff and the Chiefs of Staff of the three branches of the Armed Forces if such should be propounded by the Government.

This constitutional significance is opposed by Decree No. 160/X, when providing the commander in chief of the National Republican Guard with the same rank as that of the highest ranks of the Armed Forces. This would give rise to inadequate comparisons of the former to the latter and could pervert the necessary complementariness, as foreseen in the law, of the Guard with the Armed Forces and the effective relationship between both forces.


8. These changes have no comparison in the European Union. No other Member of the EU, with the exception of France, has five generals in internal national functions, and in no other Member of the EU, without exception, is the rank of general attributed to a security force not directly framed in the structure of national defense and not immediately dependent in operational terms from the Chief of the Armed Forces General Staff. With this law in force, Portugal would be the only Member State where this would happen.

9. The unbalance of this option of Decree No. 160/X is not diminished by attributing the rank of general to the commanding officer of the Guard through the means of legislative grading. In effect, grading is structurally linked, in the exact terms of the law, as temporary and exceptional, and with applicable legal precepts. However, in the case at issue, this temporary and exceptional situation cannot be termed as definitive. It would be highly inconvenient if it were the law itself to falsify the principle of grading, whether of the rank of general or of the function of commanding officer of the National Republican Guard.

10. It is thus a solution that is not framed within the Guard’s tradition and for which no organizational, functional or operational grounds can be found.

11. Parliamentary Decree No. 160/X foresees creating in the National Republican Guard a professional sub-category of generals, commencing hierarchically with the rank of major-general.

It is understandable that this law, which approves the structural organization of the National Republican Guard, should not regulate that issue; and that as such it will be limited to confirm the military nature of the Guard, to expressly describe the subjection of its staff to the basic precepts of the military charter, listing the professional categories, sub-categories and posts pertaining to the military career in the Guard and to surmise a legislative review leading to the “new Charter of the Guards Military Personnel”.

12. Even so, two aspects of greater sensitivity should be pondered, any of which with particular significance for national defense and security, since both are relevant for the preservation of the balance and coherency of the National Republican Guard and the Armed Forces and, undoubtedly, for the stability and cohesion of both forces.

This pondering must already occur in the area of the law under consideration, since it foresees the creation of the rank of general in the Guard, and that the intention to fulfill such posts is officially announced, either with officers graduated in military sciences by the Military Academy, or with officers who have complemented the training obtained in the officer training course with the achievement of another relevant degree for the exercise of such functions.

13. On the one hand, it should be considered that, since the nature of the National Republican Guard is military, and that the posts of professional category of its officers correspond to those of officers in the Armed Forces, the requisites for the promotion to the posts of general in the Guard cannot but be identical and in conformity to what is demanded by the Charter of the Armed Forces Military Personnel. Any possible easing of the level of qualifications required for this promotion would constitute a serious disturbance of the military institution, due to the comparisons which would be made with the three branches of the Armed Forces.

14. On the other hand, and also considering the military nature of the Guard, and its contribution to national defense, it is important to bear in mind that it is fundamental, for operational reasons, that the traditional links which exist between the Armed Forces, specifically the Army, and the National Republican Guard, as regards the military training of who is responsible for the latter’s more relevant functions of command, are not severed.

If, until now, this essential personal liaison between the Army and the Guard was naturally construed through recourse to generals in the former force, it is imperative that, when changing towards a corps of generals with origin in the Guard’s staff, this new corps of generals in the Guard must, at least, have received higher level training and complementary qualifications fully equivalent to those demanded from the Army’s generals.

15. The new Coastal Control Unit of the National Republican Guard will assume missions which are currently committed to the Portuguese Navy, either as a military force, or within the area of the System of Maritime Authority, which requires interconnection between the two institutions, the regulating of such an interconnection and the share of the respective means and facilities.

Since the missions of that Coastal Control Unit of the Guard contends with the organization of national defense, it is believed that the interconnection between the Guard and the National Maritime authority should, as a minimum, be regulated by a Decree and not by an ordinance as foreseen in Decree No. 160/X.

Considering the above grounds I have thus decided, in accordance with §1 of article No. 136 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, to request a reappraisal of Decree No. 160/X, and am as such returning it to Parliament without it being enacted.

With highest regards.

The President of the Republic

Aníbal Cavaco Silva