Marcelo loses power to dissolve the Assembly of the Republic

The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has entered the last half year of his five-year term of office and under the terms of the Constitution, has now lost the power to dissolve the Assembly of the Republic.

Article 172 of the Constitution provides that "the Assembly of the Republic cannot be dissolved in the six months following its election", which took place on 6 October, 2019, nor "in the last semester of the President of the Republic's term", between 9 September and 9 March, 2021.

Two weeks ago, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa recalled that he would soon be prevented from exercising this power, regarding the approval of the State Budget for 2021, and asked the parties for dialogue, describing the possibility that in the near future there would be "a political crisis or the threat of political crisis "in addition to the crisis resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Five years ago, after presenting his presidential candidacy, the former president of the PSD enunciated his reading of the constitutional powers of the head of state in terms of dissolving parliament and forming governments in a speech at Voz do Operário, in Lisbon, on 24 October 2015.

In that intervention, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa promised that, if he were elected, he would do everything to "not burden" his successor with "avoidable problems in relation to the powers of the State" and considered it negative for Portugal to live "six, seven, eight months without the State".