The President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, made a new statement following his position on the statements made by André Ventura, this afternoon, in Parliament.

"Freedom of expression never goes too far in my view. What freedom of expression is not, is a freedom of expression conditioned by the consideration of anyone, let alone the PAR", Aguiar-Branco began by saying in a statement to journalists.

In his opinion, this freedom of expression should "be used with a sense of responsibility", but if it is not, "the person who does so may be subject, for example, to the practice of a crime", leading to it being a case to be taken to the judicial area. "If a crime is committed in the responsible or irresponsible exercise of freedom of expression, the Public Prosecutor's Office has the conditions to bring a criminal action, any citizen can make the respective complaint and can request that parliamentary immunity be lifted", he said.

"What is expected of the PAR, when it pleases or displeases any parliamentary group, is that it ensures that all its deputies can express themselves freely and the responsibility for what is said is of each one. Political discourse is then censored, or not, in the elections", declared Aguiar-Branco, adding that "it is not the table that is a police station or a popular court".

"I have to guarantee, from the Left to the Right, that there are no conditions on freedom of expression. And I cannot be the one to qualify a certain expression or opinion, as being or not the practice of a crime", he points out.

The PAR ensures that its role is not to condition the debate and "to create conditions so that, even if something is said by the Right that does not please the Left, that the Left can have the same rights and the same airtime to be able to react".

Aguiar-Branco points out, however, that "it does not mean that I agree with the opinions expressed". "If I were to take the floor every time I hear something I don't like or don't identify with, I probably wouldn't do anything else", he says.

"I do not think that I make any mistake whenever I allow freedom of expression in the Assembly of the Republic. It is not my job to censor. I even find it hard to understand that it is not understood that I cannot be the censor of freedom of expression", the PAR also states.

What is at stake?

It all started with an intervention by André Ventura who, when questioning the 10 years foreseen for the construction of the new Lisbon airport, said the following: "We can be much better than the Turks, the Chinese, the Albanians, we will have an airport in five years".

"Istanbul Airport was built and operational in five years, the Turks are not exactly known for being the hardest working people in the world", Ventura had started by saying, under protests from several benches, with Aguiar-Branco asking to let him continue his intervention because "the deputy has freedom of expression to express himself".

Immediately, the parliamentary leader of the BE, Fabian Figueiredo, asked for the floor to defend that "attributing characteristics and stereotypes to a people should have no place in the democratic debate of the Assembly of the Republic" and apologized to the Turkish ambassador.

In the response, the President of the Assembly of the Republic said he disagreed with this view.

"I do not agree, because democratic debate is each one being able to express themselves exactly as they want to. In the opinion of the President of the Assembly, the work is being conducted ensuring the free expression of all deputies, it has nothing to do with what I personally think, I will not be the censor of any of the deputies", he said.

The parliamentary leader of the PS, Alexandra Leitão, also asked for the floor to question "if a certain bench says that a certain race or ethnicity is more stupid or lazy, it can also".

"In my opinion, it can. Freedom of expression is constitutionally enshrined. The evaluation of the political discourse that is made here in this house will be made by the people in elections", replied the President of the Assembly of the Republic.

Aguiar-Branco proposed that "if there is anyone who thinks that the deputies' intervention should be censored, they should appeal the decision of the President of the Assembly".

"And then the plenary will do the censorship, it will not be me", he said.

Isabel Mendes Lopes, parliamentary leader of Livre, asked for the floor to emphasize that "racism is a crime" and that what is said in Parliament "has a direct consequence on people's lives".

"I will not continue with this theme, the Assembly has numerous regimental mechanisms to express its opinion. One thing you can be sure of, I will never curtail freedom of expression", said Aguiar-Branco, in an intervention applauded standing by the Chega bench.

The moment was quickly reported and criticism of Aguiar-Branco multiplied on social networks.

[News updated at 5:37 pm]

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