Assembly of the Republic (Portugal)

The Assembly of the Republic (Portuguese: Assembleia da República, pronounced [ɐsẽˈblɐjɐ dɐ ʁɛˈpublikɐ]) is the parliament of Portugal. According to the Constitution of Portugal, the unicameral parliament "is the representative assembly of all Portuguese citizens." The constitution names the assembly as one of the country's organs of supreme authority.

Assembly of the Republic Assembleia da República
14th Assembly of the Republic
Emblem of the Assembly of the Republic
Flag of the Assembly of the Republic
Type
Type	Unicameral
Leadership
President (Speaker)	Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, PS since 23 October 2015
Vice-Presidents	Edite Estrela (PS) Fernando Negrão (PSD) José Manuel Pureza (BE) António Filipe (PCP)
Structure
Seats	230
Political groups	Government (108)      PS (108) Opposition (122)      PPD/PSD (79)      BE (19)      PCP (10)      CDS-PP (5)      PAN (3)      PEV (2)      CH (1)      IL (1)      Independent (2)[1][2]
Elections
Voting system	Party-list proportional representation D'Hondt method Closed list
Last election	6 October 2019
Next election	8 October 2023 or earlier
Meeting place
São Bento Palace, Lisbon, Portugal
Website
parlamento.pt

It is located in a historical building in Lisbon, referred to as Palácio de São Bento (Palace of Saint Benedict), the site of an old Benedictine monastery. The Palácio de São Bento has been the seat of the Portuguese parliaments since 1834 (Cortes until 1910, Congress from 1911 to 1926 and National Assembly from 1933 to 1974).

Powers and duties of the Assembly

The Assembly of the Republic's powers derives from its power to dismiss a government through a vote of no confidence, to change the country's laws, and to amend the constitution (this one requires a majority of two-thirds). In addition to these key powers, the constitution grants to the Assembly extensive legislative powers and substantial control over the budget, the right to authorize the government to raise taxes and grant loans, the power to ratify treaties and other kinds of international agreements, and the duty to approve or reject decisions by the President of the Republic to declare war and make peace. The assembly also appoints many members of important state institutions, such as ten of the thirteen members of the Constitutional Court and seven of the sixteen members of the Council of State.

The constitution requires the assembly to quickly review and approve an incoming government's program. Parliamentary rules allow the assembly to call for committees of inquiry to examine the government's actions. Political opposition represented in the assembly has the power to review the cabinet's actions, even though it is unlikely that the actions can be reversed. Party groups can also call for interpellations that require debates about specific government policies.

Structure

The assembly consisted at first of 250 members, but the constitutional reforms of 1989 reduced its number to between 180 and 230. Members are elected by popular vote for legislative terms of four years from the country's twenty-two constituencies (eighteen in mainland Portugal corresponding to each district, one for each autonomous region, Azores (Portuguese: Açores) and Madeira, one for Portuguese living in Europe and a last one for those living in the rest of the world. Except for the constituencies for Portuguese living abroad, which are fixed at two members each, the number of voters registered in a constituency determines the number of its members in the assembly, using the D'Hondt method of proportional representation. Constituencies vary greatly in size; from as large as the district of Lisbon, which returns 48 representatives, to as small as the district of Portalegre, which elects just two.

For the 2019 legislative elections, the MPs distributed by districts were as follows:[3]

District	Number of MPs	Map
Lisbon	48
Porto	40
Braga	19
Setúbal	18
Aveiro	16
Leiria	10
Coimbra, Faro and Santarém	9 each
Viseu	8
Madeira and Viana do Castelo	6 each
Azores and Vila Real	5 each
Guarda and Castelo Branco	4 each
Beja, Bragança, Évora e Guarda	3 each
Portalegre, Europe and Outside Europe	2 each

According to the constitution, members of the assembly represent the entire country, not the constituency from which they are elected. This directive has been reinforced in practice by the strong role of political parties in regard to members of the assembly. Party leadership, for example, determines in which areas candidates are to run for office, thus often weakening members' ties to their constituencies. Moreover, members of the assembly are expected to vote with their party and to work within parliamentary groups based on party membership. Party discipline is strong, and insubordinate members can be coerced through a variety of means. A further obstacle to members' independence is that their bills first have to be submitted to the parliamentary groups, and it is these groups' leaders who set the assembly's agenda.

The President of the Assembly of the Republic is the second hierarchical figure in the Portuguese state, after the President of the Portuguese Republic, and is elected by secret vote of the members of parliament. The President of the Assembly is aided by four vice-presidents, nominated by the other parties represented in the parliament, and is usually the speaker. When he is not present, one of the vice-presidents takes the role of speaker. When the President of the Republic is, for any reason, unable to perform to job, the President of the Assembly of the Republic becomes his substitute.

Current composition

Party		Caucus leader	Seats	%
	Socialist Party	Ana Catarina Mendes	108	47.0
	Social Democratic Party	Rui Rio	79	34.4
	Left Bloc	Pedro Filipe Soares	19	8.2
	Portuguese Communist Party	João Oliveira	10	4.4
	People's Party	Telmo Correia	5	2.2
	People–Animals–Nature	Inês Sousa Real	3	1.3
	Ecologist Party "The Greens"	José Luís Ferreira	2	0.9
	CHEGA	André Ventura	1	0.4
	Liberal Initiative	João Cotrim de Figueiredo	1	0.4
	Independent	Joacine Katar Moreira Cristina Rodrigues	2	0.8
Total			230	100.0

Latest election

Main article: 2019 Portuguese legislative election

National summary

Summary of the 6 October 2019 Assembly of the Republic elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	MPs					MPs %/ votes %
					2015	2019	±	%	±
	Socialist	1,903,687	36.35	4.0	86	108	22	46.96	9.6	1.29
	Social Democratic	1,454,283	27.77	[lower-alpha 1]	89	79	10	34.35	4.3	1.24
	Left Bloc	498,549	9.52	0.7	19	19	0	8.26	0.0	0.87
	Unitary Democratic Coalition	332,018	6.34	1.9	17	12	5	5.22	2.2	0.82
	People's	221,094	4.22	[lower-alpha 1]	18	5	13	2.17	5.6	0.51
	People–Animals–Nature	173,931	3.32	1.9	1	4	3	1.74	1.3	0.52
	CHEGA	67,502	1.29	N/A	N/A	1	N/A	0.43	N/A	0.33
	Liberal Initiative	67,443	1.29	N/A	N/A	1	N/A	0.43	N/A	0.33
	LIVRE	56,940	1.09	0.4	0	1	1	0.43	0.4	0.39
	Alliance	40,175	0.77	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	0.0
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	36,006	0.69	0.4	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	React, Include, Recycle	35,169	0.67	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	0.0
	National Renovator	16,992	0.32	0.2	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Earth	12,888	0.25	0.2	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	We, the Citizens!	12,346	0.24	0.2	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Democratic Republican	11,674	0.22	0.9	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	United Party of Retirees and Pensioners	11,457	0.22	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Together for the People	10,552	0.20	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	People's Monarchist	8,389	0.16	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Labour	8,271	0.16	[lower-alpha 2]	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Socialist Alternative Movement	3,243	0.06	[lower-alpha 2]	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
Total valid		4,982,609	95.14	1.1	230	230	0	100.00	0	—
Blank ballots		131,302	2.51	0.4
Invalid ballots		123,573	2.36	0.7
Total		5,237,484	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		10,777,258	48.60	7.3
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Vote share PS   36.35% PSD   27.77% BE   9.52% CDU   6.34% CDS-PP   4.22% PAN   3.32% CH   1.29% IL   1.29% L   1.09% Alliance   0.77% PCTP/MRPP   0.69% RIR   0.67% Others   1.83% Blank/Invalid   4.87%

Parliamentary seats PS   46.96% PSD   34.35% BE   8.26% CDU   5.22% CDS-PP   2.17% PAN   1.74% CH   0.43% IL   0.43% L   0.43%

Distribution by constituency

 Results of the 2019 election of the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic
by constituency

Constituency	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	Total S
	PS		PSD		BE		CDU		CDS–PP		PAN		CH		IL		L
Azores	40.1	3	30.2	2	8.0	-	2.5	-	4.8	-	2.7	-	0.9	-	0.7	-	0.9	-	5
Aveiro	34.3	7	33.6	6	10.0	2	3.1	-	5.7	1	3.0	-	0.7	-	1.0	-	0.7	-	16
Beja	40.7	2	13.3	-	9.1	-	22.8	1	2.3	-	2.0	-	2.0	-	0.4	-	0.6	-	3
Braga	36.4	8	34.1	8	8.9	2	4.0	-	4.1	1	2.6	-	0.7	-	0.8	-	0.7	-	19
Bragança	36.5	1	40.8	2	6.0	-	2.1	-	4.5	-	1.3	-	0.8	-	0.4	-	0.3	-	3
Castelo Branco	40.9	3	26.3	1	11.1	-	4.8	-	3.7	-	2.4	-	1.3	-	0.6	-	0.9	-	4
Coimbra	39.0	5	26.6	3	11.2	1	5.6	-	3.5	-	2.6	-	0.9	-	0.8	-	0.9	-	9
EvoraÉvora	38.3	2	17.5	-	9.0	-	18.9	1	3.4	-	2.0	-	2.2	-	0.7	-	0.7	-	3
Faro	36.8	5	22.3	3	12.3	1	7.1	-	3.8	-	4.8	-	2.1	-	0.8	-	1.0	-	9
Guarda	37.6	2	34.3	1	7.8	-	3.0	-	5.0	-	1.6	-	1.5	-	0.6	-	0.5	-	3
Leiria	31.1	4	33.5	5	9.4	1	4.3	-	5.3	-	2.9	-	1.5	-	0.9	-	0.9	-	10
Lisbon	36.7	20	22.6	12	9.7	5	7.8	4	4.4	2	4.4	2	2.0	1	2.5	1	2.1	1	48
Madeira	33.4	3	37.1	3	5.2	-	2.1	-	6.1	-	1.8	-	0.7	-	0.7	-	0.4	-	6
Portalegre	44.7	2	20.1	-	10.5	-	8.1	-	3.8	-	1.7	-	2.7	-	0.5	-	0.6	-	2
Porto	36.7	17	31.2	15	10.1	4	4.8	2	3.3	1	3.5	1	0.6	-	1.5	-	1.0	-	40
Santarém	37.1	4	25.2	3	10.2	1	7.6	1	4.7	-	2.6	-	2.0	-	0.8	-	0.9	-	9
Setúbal	38.6	9	14.4	3	12.1	2	15.8	3	3.0	-	4.4	1	1.9	-	1.1	-	1.2	-	18
Viana do Castelo	34.8	3	33.8	3	8.5	-	4.0	-	6.2	-	2.4	-	0.7	-	0.6	-	0.6	-	6
Vila Real	37.2	2	39.0	3	6.1	-	2.5	-	4.5	-	1.7	-	0.8	-	0.4	-	0.6	-	5
Viseu	35.4	4	36.2	4	7.9	-	2.3	-	5.9	-	2.1	-	1.0	-	0.6	-	0.5	-	8
Europe	29.1	1	18.8	1	5.7	-	2.5	-	3.0	-	4.9	-	0.9	-	0.8	-	1.1	-	2
Rest of the World	20.2	1	33.4	1	3.5	-	1.0	-	4.7	-	4.3	-	0.9	-	2.5	-	0.7	-	2
Total	36.4	108	27.8	79	9.5	19	6.3	12	4.2	5	3.3	4	1.3	1	1.3	1	1.1	1	230
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Composition of the Assembly of the Republic since 1975

• 
  1975-1976
• 
  1976-1979
• 
  1979-1980
• 
  1980-1983
• 
  1983-1985
• 
  1985-1987
• 
  1987-1991
• 
  1991-1995
• 
  1995-1999
• 
  1999-2002
• 
  2002-2005
• 
  2005-2009
• 
  2009-2011
• 
  2011-2015
• 
  2015–2019
• 
  2019–2023

Presidents of the Assembly of the Republic

Members

See also

• São Bento Palace
• ARtv (Portugal)

Notes

1. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the People's Party (CDS–PP) contested the 2015 election in a coalition called Portugal Ahead (PàF) and won a combined 38.6% of the vote and elected 107 MPs to parliament.
2. The Socialist Alternative Movement (MAS) and the Portuguese Labour Party (PTP) contested the 2015 election in a coalition called AGIR! (Act!) and won a combined 0.4% of the vote.

References

1. https://observador.pt/2020/01/31/assembleia-do-livre-retira-confianca-a-joacine-katar-moreira/
2. "Cristina Rodrigues deixa PAN e passa a deputada não inscrita". Notícias ao Minuto (in Portuguese). 2020-06-25. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
3. "Mapa Oficial nº 2-A 2015" (PDF). CNE - Comissão Nacional de Eleições - Diário da República, 1.a série—N.o 154-10 de agosto de 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2016.

External links

• Official website