The idea that it is the State of Emergency that will respond to the sanitary situation that we are going through is not only wrong but dangerous.
The Assembly of the Republic approved on 6 November the declaration of State of Emergency authorization proposed by the President of the Republic.
The PCP pointed out four reasons that support the option to vote against.
Firstly, in responding to the increase in cases with the declaration of the State of Emergency, the first and main question is being disregarded: the definition of the security conditions that must be created in each area and sector so that the different dimensions of life can proceed as normally as possible in the circumstances we are going through.
Secondly, as the PCP has been denouncing for months, the option of declaring the State of Emergency carries with it the lack of accountability of public authorities, falling into the facilitation of individual accountability and the limitation of rights, freedoms and guarantees alongside the failure in political options .
Third, this decision deepens the fear and panic that has been exacerbated on a mass scale, justifying limitations on the exercise of individual or collective rights that have occurred in recent months, while misleading that this is where the solution to the problems lies. that we face.
Finally, a fourth reason: with access to health care being at stake, this declaration of the State of Emergency does not aim at defending constitutional rights in a state of exception but rather at opening up private business with public money under the pretext of Epidemic.
It may be easier and more convenient to skip the discussion on health conditions and replace that discussion with the imposition of suspensions, limitations and prohibitions, but it is no longer effective
The proposal for a declaration of the State of Emergency does not point to a single real impetus for the strengthening of the NHS, but it unabashedly supports the business of the disease. Even the legal possibility – which already existed and will continue to exist – for requisition by the State of private means is transformed into an appeal to contract with private economic groups operating in this area.
What the country needs is not a State of Emergency. The country needs to discuss and move forward in strengthening the NHS and its response capacity. Not only in the interruption of contagion chains, but also in the hospitalization of acute patients. Not only in response to COVID patients, but also to other patients with other pathologies that are not being diagnosed or treated in time. Not only in investing in hospitals, health centers, equipment and other means, but also in hiring health professionals.
What the country needs are measures that encourage individual protection, promote protection pedagogy and ensure health security conditions so that national life can continue.
It is necessary to give priority to measures to strengthen the capacity of the SNS to respond, to ensure the safety of schools, homes, public transport, cultural and sports facilities and facilities.
What is emerging is to discuss is what measures have to be taken to adapt spaces to adequately receive students, spectators or customers, what measures to increase the number of buses and trains have to be taken to reduce the number of passengers without leaving anyone without transportation . And is it a real emergency also to know what investment needs to be made in public services and what support do small companies, communities, small farmers, producers and marketers need to develop their activity in these new conditions?
Instead of suspending, prohibiting or preventing activities or events, what is needed is that health security conditions be created in order to maintain economic, social, cultural and sporting activities.
And instead, we are discussing yet another authorization from the State of Emergency that can cover restrictions on the exercise of rights, many of which, it should be said, are already possible without recourse to this declaration.
It may be easier and more convenient to skip the discussion on health conditions and replace that discussion with the imposition of suspensions, limitations and prohibitions, but it is no longer effective.
It is certainly not proportional, but it is also not a rational and adequate approach.
- Member of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) – Portugal
