Portugal’s president proposes to Parliament a limited state of emergency from November 9 to 23

  • ECO News
  • 5 November 2020

The President of the Republic has already submitted to Parliament his proposal to decree a limited state of emergency for 15 days.

Portugal’s president has already submitted to Parliament his proposal to decree a limited state of emergency for 15 days. If approved by the MPs, the state of emergency will start on the 9th and end on the 23rd of November, allowing the government to take certain measures to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. The vote should take place on Friday.

“After hearing the government, which had proposed it and pronounced at the end of the morning in a favorable direction, the President of the Republic has just sent to the Assembly of the Republic, for its authorization, the draft decree declaring a state of emergency for 15 days, starting November 9th and running through November 23rd, allowing the government to take certain measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic,” according to the note published on the Presidency website this Thursday.

If approved, the state of emergency will become effective at 00:00 next Monday and will end at 23:59 on November 23, “without prejudice to possible renewals,” says the decree, anticipating, as the Prime Minister had said before, that its application will last longer.

These are the measures to which this state of emergency may provide legal coverage:

  • The possibility for the government to impose restrictions on movement in certain places at certain times, particularly in municipalities at higher risk;
  • The use, if necessary and preferably by agreement, of health resources from the private, social and cooperative sectors, with the appropriate compensation;
  • The mobilization of workers, as well as the armed forces and the security forces, for the strengthening of health authorities in epidemiological and screening surveys;
  • And the possibility of measuring body temperature, by non-invasive means, and to impose tests on accessing certain services and equipment.