This position of José Pedro Aguiar-Branco is part of a document entitled "Freedom of expression, a super freedom of maximum expression and minimum restriction". A question that arose after the left-wing parliamentary benches criticized him for not having reprimanded the president of Chega, André Ventura, when, on Friday, in plenary session, he referred to the working capabilities of the Turkish people.

For the PS, PCP, BE and Livre, the president of the parliament, in the face of this speech by André Ventura, which they classified as racist and xenophobic in relation to the Turkish people, should have acted under article 89.º number 3 of the Rules of Procedure, being able to even withdraw the floor from the leader of Chega.

But, for José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, this is not the correct interpretation. And this article does not mean that the president of the Assembly of the Republic is "invested with powers of censorship or of judgment of possible offenses".

"Such normative provision, of an organizational nature of the debate and with effects inter partes, only grants powers to the president of the Assembly of the Republic to create a space for political discourse free from constraints, open to the confrontation of ideas, which guarantees that the exercise of the mandate (...) is exercised without fear of reprisals. The ratio of this norm is not, in any way, the conditioning of the debate, but rather to prevent it from being conditioned by insults, offenses, blackmail or threats between the participants", he argues.

In the perspective of the former social-democratic minister, it is not up to the president of the Assembly of the Republic "to evaluate the goodness of political discourse, even if ethically worthless".

"Nor is it his responsibility, in the name of the regimental powers conferred upon him, to institute a culture of linguistic cancellation, curbing opinions and assuming himself as the guardian of the acceptable and the politically correct. At no time can the president of the Assembly of the Republic replace the court in the operation of the criterion of practical agreement (or checks and balances) between freedom of expression and other constitutionally guaranteed principles", the document states.

José Pedro Aguiar-Branco also leaves a clue about a possible reform in terms of the functioning of parliament, citing, for this purpose, professor José Melo Alexandrino.

It is suggested, then, that we could consider a reform of parliament, "starting with the Code of Conduct of Deputies and respective supervisory structures, with the reform of the Statute of Deputies or of the Rules of Procedure itself".

A process that, in his view, should strengthen existing mechanisms "that allow deputies to react -- namely in the face of expressions that propagate, incite, promote or justify racial hatred, xenophobia or other forms of hatred based on intolerance -- such as the figure of protest, contained in article 85º, number 1, of the Rules of Procedure".

"Or, even, to consider the creation of a regimental vote of rejection, corresponding to a formal declaration of repudiation, disapproval or condemnation of a certain action or statement, which can be immediately submitted to a vote of the plenary, in order to give voice to the parliament regarding the official and collective condemnation of a certain speech", the document argues.

A proposal that José Pedro Aguiar-Branco presented today at a leaders' conference and which the different parliamentary groups will now analyze, although the left-wing benches have already ruled out a new revision of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Republic.

In the conclusions section, the president of the Assembly of the Republic highlights a basic principle inherent to his conception of representative democracy.

"In a democratic and plural society, the evaluation and defeat of political discourse is done through arguments and the objective confrontation of the truth of the facts, never by means of the imposition of silence or censorship, without this meaning condescension, agreement or validation of opinions and ideologies that (...) only the people can appreciate and judge through the weapon they have: The vote", he adds.

Read Also: Twins? Aguiar-Branco asks for the AR to "leave prestigious once again" (Portuguese version)