With the presence of the head of state, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the solemn session today will be the “high point” of the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the first Portuguese Constitution, said the president of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva.

Santos Silva recalled that the Constitution by which republican and democratic Portugal is governed today is based on the “regime of rights and freedoms of all citizens” established just two centuries ago.

“Things that are as natural today as the air we breathe were only born in 1822, for example, freedom of the press, freedom of public expression, freedom of our opinions, the right of citizens to petition the Assembly, the right to choose our representatives, the deputies to the Assembly”, pointed out the president of the parliament.

The first Constitution, continued Santos Silva, which resulted from the first election of deputies to the Cortes Gerais, enshrined “the legislative power of the courts and the balance between the powers: the executive power and the legislative power”.

“Now, all this that is part of our present day began in 1822 and all this is very necessary for us to scrutinize the acts of the Government and the administration, to present and discuss each other's proposals, to make the laws that are indispensable, to express our anxieties, our problems, sometimes our despair, and not being persecuted for that, […] all this is only 200 years old”, added the President of the Assembly of the Republic.