Under “Azorean autonomy: the crossroads and the way out,” we held a conference at the Lar Doce Livro bookstore on the 13th in the Autonomous City of Angra do Heroísmo. This text is the program of what we did there.
The disease is the unconstitutionality of the system of government; the cure is the creation of a new model that is constitutional, democratic, and regional, and through a simple operation.
1st preliminary note. In 1976, the Constitution advocated a simple system for two reasons: on the one hand, because of the perplexity and amazement of the event that was the creation of the political autonomy of the country’s historic island regions, and, on the other hand, because the initial idea of simplicity lay in the fact that regional normative power was centered exclusively in the regional parliament and no normative-legislative power in the regional government. However, as time went on, legislative models were systematically altered to evade the Constitutional Court’s interpretations, and regional politics found ways that, while they once served to avoid control of constitutionality and legality, now serve to multiply the legal system with more government normative acts than parliamentary normative acts; and, as a result of this, or alongside it, the fundamental rights of islanders have been devitalized, with parliamentary laws serving as if they were basic laws and sustaining a body of legislation in the form of normative resolutions, turning the legislative system into a resolutive system with huge dysfunctions in the entire legal order (…). ..).
2nd preliminary note. For most politicians, the solution to this problem lies in A) Extinguishing the office of Representative of the Republic, or B) Placing its powers in the President of Parliament, or C) the President of the Republic. These models are entirely wrong because they are inoperable and would make the system of government much worse (…).
3rd preliminary note. The durability of party governance is the second biggest symptom of the democratic imperfection of regional autonomy: 49 years in Madeira and 20 and 24 in the Azores (…).
4th note. The relationship between theory and reality. Aristotle (in the Treatise) states that citizens should always be on the lookout for politicians because, as a rule, they are prone to prevarication, and the longer they are in office, the greater this propensity is. In other words, even when reality does not clearly show reasons for attention, the citizen must always be vigilant. It is this attentiveness that will help prevent malfeasance. Kin Selection and Reciprocal Altruism are two biological foundations of politics (Francis Fukuyama). Since the 1990s, there have been studies reconfirming the practice of the theory (Arnaldo Ourique) (…).
5th preliminary note. The Constitution has rules on the functioning of political bodies and rules on fundamental rights. With a crucial distinction, the regulations on rights are open and subject to adjustments based on material justice, and the principle of reality is taken into account; the political rules are fixed to guarantee effective democracy. In other words, effective democracy requires that the political powers of governments are enshrined directly in the Constitution; when they are, the state is decent; when they are not, the state is not entirely democratic (…).
1st central idea. The state creates laws that regulate society, and, as a result, the principles of universality, equality, real equality between all Portuguese, and the harmonious development of the entire national territory are always present. This shapes society and can lead to improvements, deviations, or crises of general contentment. The Autonomous Region also creates laws. Within this framework, the region shapes the sovereignty of fundamental rights. In other words, the area has the same function (in different dimensions) as the state regarding basic, social, and cultural rights. Therefore, it is assumed that the Autonomous Region also has a system of government that is identical in political effectiveness to the national system of government. But it doesn’t (…).
2nd central idea. What are the national and regional models? The National: President of the Republic, Assembly of the Republic, and Government of the Republic. And the regional: Regional Assembly, Regional Government, Representative of the Republic and President of the Republic. In other words, the national system of government is rational and democratic; the regional system of government is irrational and undemocratic because it doesn’t provide mechanisms for political and governmental control (…).
3rd central idea. Solution for the regional government system: Regional Assembly, Regional Government, and a third regional body, the President of the Autonomous Region (…).
4th central idea. Wrong solutions. No to the models mentioned in A), B), and C) above. No comparisons with Spain, Switzerland, Canada, and Germany. No to local government systems. No to systems that don’t have a social idiosyncrasy comparable to the island regions; with their long political history, the Portuguese regions have everything they need to create a regional Portuguese model (…).
Conclusions: The Constitution is in a state of autonomous delirium. The autonomous regions are in a democratic delirium due to political blindness and exclusive partisan interests. Autonomous island citizens live in democratic delirium: they have no constitutional protection, neither for their fundamental rights nor their future. As far as the autonomous regions are concerned, the country is not a decent state. In doing so, it is dramatically violating two of its fundamental tasks: the realization of real equality between all Portuguese people and the harmonious development of the entire national territory. The autonomous regions are a long way from fulfilling their role of legislative sovereignty of the principles of real equality between all islanders and the harmonious development of the entire archipelago (…)

arnaldo.ourique@gmail.com

Arnaldo Ourique is a specialist in constitutional law and has done extensive research on European Regions, especially the Azorean Autonomy.

NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from various leading thinkers and writers from the Azores to give the diaspora and those interested in the current Azores a sense of the significant opinions on some of the archipelago’s issues.

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL)