Administrative reorganization in Portugal 2013

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Administrative division of Portugal (mainland)

The administrative reorganization in Portugal 2013 (orig .: Reorganização administrativa do território das freguesias ) is a law to reorganize the administrative structure of Portugal .

It came into force on January 28, 2013 as law number 11-A / 2013 and was implemented with effect from September 29, 2013. It was preceded in 2012 by a law on the basic regulation of municipal territorial reform .

The law was created in connection with the ongoing austerity policies in Portugal .

scope

The present regional reform in the administrative structure only affects its lowest level, the freguesias (municipalities).

It initially only applies to continental Portugal. According to Article 18 of Law 22/2012, the mandatory local government reform in the two autonomous regions is entrusted to the respective parliaments of the Autonomous Region of Madeira and the Autonomous Region of the Azores .

The previous number of 4,259 Portuguese municipalities was reduced to 3,091 by the 2013 territorial reform. The basis was Law 22/2012, which in its Article 6 in particular lists the criteria for the dissolution and amalgamation of municipalities. A municipality may not have fewer than 150 inhabitants. The law exempts districts from the obligation to merge municipalities that have fewer than four municipalities in total or that would fall below this minimum number after the measures. In addition, other criteria apply, particularly depending on the number and distribution of the population in the districts concerned.

With regard to the direct financing of the municipalities, the law expressly does not provide for any cuts. For example, the contributions from the state municipal finance budget ( Fundo de Financiamento das Freguesias , FFF) are prescribed for each newly created municipality in the exact amount that results from the total of the contributions from the previous municipalities that are summarized in it.

course

prehistory

Wall graffito in Lisbon

As a result of the international financial crisis from 2007 , Portugal also got into the euro crisis . The socialist Prime Minister José Sócrates reacted with a policy of austerity , the three austerity packages of which triggered increasing mass protests, up to and including the general strike on November 24, 2010. After the fourth austerity package in 2011 did not win a parliamentary majority, Sócrates resigned. The early parliamentary elections in Portugal in 2011 brought the conservative-liberal PSD to government under the new Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho . You immediately apply for EU aid under the euro rescue package . Since then, the EU Troika has been in constant negotiations with the Portuguese government about measures to consolidate the national budget.

One of the many, often controversial, measures that stemmed from proposals by the Troika was a reform of the lowest level of local self-government in Portugal . This led to controversial debates in the Portuguese parliament , in the municipalities and in public.

After heated debates inside and outside Parliament, Law No. 22/2012 of May 30, 2012 laid down the legal framework, objectives and parameters of an administrative regional reform. On the one hand, it prescribes a corresponding reform of the communities ( freguesias ) and, on the other hand, regulates a future reform of the districts ( concelhos ), which the law thus stimulates.

Some city administrations then started to amalgamate the municipalities. The city administration of Lisbon began planning that would later reduce its 53 boroughs to 24, and the first amalgamations were also initiated in some other cities, mostly against strong resistance from local administrations, for example in the seaside resort of Figueira da Foz .

Bill

Law no. 22/2012 established in Article 13 the Unidade Técnica de Reorganização Administrativa , the technical group for the technical implementation of territorial reform and its composition. It was directly subordinate to Parliament and was composed of five representatives from Parliament, including the Speaker of Parliament, and representatives from all levels of the administrative structure of Portugal. Article 14 of the law then specified the activities and objectives of the section. This then worked out a map of the administrative structure of Portugal with a reduction of the existing 4259 municipalities by 1165 corporations. The card formed the basis of the bill that was introduced into parliament by Minister Miguel Relvas for the governing coalition of PSD and CDS . Since the spring of 2012, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs had met with massive resistance from the local administrations with his plans discussed in advance, which repeatedly demanded his resignation. Until the bill was passed, it was subject to numerous parliamentary debates and public hearings and protests, which were also directed against the minister.

Debate and protests until adoption

Protests in front of parliament, general strike on November 14, 2012

The parliamentary debate and the public discussion continued to be controversial. In addition to the PS and the BE , the communist PCP was particularly active against the plans, including in numerous public protests that they hoped would prevent the law.

However, even after the numerous objections and protests, the government stuck to its plans. In particular, ANAFRE ( Associação Nacional de Freguesias , the association of municipalities in Portugal) developed a large number of initiatives, including public demonstrations. The largest took place in Lisbon on March 31, 2012 , and ran between two central squares, from Praça Marquês de Pombal to Rossio .

In addition to a number of other austerity measures, it was also the ongoing resistance to the draft law on municipal reform that contributed to further mass protests against government policy, up to renewed general strikes on March 22, 2012 and November 14, 2012, which were primarily against the numerous directed social cuts. The government nevertheless continued to pursue its austerity policies and territorial reform.

In a voting marathon on December 21, 2012, the PCP then introduced 250 of the 270 proposed amendments aimed at preventing the amalgamation of municipalities. With votes against the government coalition, the proposals supported by the PCP, PS and BE were all rejected. The bill (orig .: projeto de lei número 320 / XII / 2ª ) was passed by the majority of votes of the PSD and CDS against the votes of the opposition parties.

President Cavaco Silva (2014)

Accompanied by a demonstration in front of the presidential seat, the Palácio Nacional de Belém , the national association of municipalities ANAFRE then asked the President on December 22nd, 2012 not to sign the bill or, alternatively, to delay its entry into force in order to enable improvements in the planned implementation. ANAFRE emphasized that it was not fundamentally against a territorial reform, but against the concrete plans at hand for its implementation. The proportion of expenditure affected by the law is also only 0.1% of the state budget. The territorial reform was therefore not a matter of urgency and, in view of its far-reaching effects, should allow a free and open debate with the involvement of those concerned and not arise under the constraints of the present draft.

Adoption and implementation

On January 16, 2013, President Aníbal Cavaco Silva signed the law. He then returned the document to Parliament with a number of comments, including a warning not to interfere with the implementation of the law in the 2013 local elections in Portugal .

The new regulation finally came into effect on January 28, 2013 as law with the number 11-A / 2013 through publication in the Diário da República , the legal gazette of the Republic of Portugal. The actual implementation was scheduled for the conclusion of the local elections on September 29, 2013.

Reception and implementation

Municipal administration of the former municipality of Sé , now the municipality of União das Freguesias de Sé, Santa Maria e Meixedo , in the city of Bragança
The local council of Cesar

The formal validity of the territorial reform and the reduction of the municipal political offices came into effect in accordance with the law. This completed another of the numerous austerity measures that are intended to consolidate the Portuguese budget.

Minister Relvas welcomed the law as a step towards a more efficient and citizen-friendly administration. However, he remained under fire and was confronted with a series of allegations and scandals regarding his academic titles and various references, which eventually led to his resignation on April 4, 2013.

The constitutionality of the bill had also been questioned from various quarters, such as by ANAFRE and various local governments. However, after examining the published document in June 2013, the Attorney General Joana Marques Vidal saw no reason to request a corresponding clarification from the Portuguese Constitutional Court , so that the law also remained unaffected by the constitution.

With the conclusion of the local elections on September 29, 2013, the territorial reform was officially put into practice. Since then, however, Act 11-A / 2013 has often only been applied de jure by the municipalities concerned . In fact, the dissolved municipal administrations often continue to function as branches of their new municipality. On the one hand, this accommodated the protests of the community association ANAFRE, on the other hand it also corresponded to the spirit of the remarks made by President Cavaco Silva, in which he emphasized the importance of a community-based local administration as a central pillar of state administration. In view of this largely unchanged proximity to the citizens, protests, such as the demonstrations in the run-up, did not take place after the law came into force. Another reason is likely to be the overlaying of public perception by other, more immediate austerity measures in the country, especially in wages, health, education and culture.

The 2013 territorial reform ignored the legislature's intention, formulated as an incentive in Law 22/2012, to reorganize the districts ( concelhos ) in the future , in accordance with the criteria specified in Chapter three in particular. Politicians have not taken up the issue so far, so no concrete advances in this direction were known (as of December 2014).

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Article 1 of the law on municipal land reform , published in the Diário da República law gazette of January 28, 2013 (pdf), accessed on January 24, 2015
  2. ↑ a b c Publication of the legal regulations on municipal reorganization in the Diário da República law gazette of May 30, 2012 (pdf download), accessed on January 24, 2015
  3. ↑ Article of May 5, 2011 on a joint discussion between the Chamber of Accountants and the Jornal de Notícias newspaper , message on the TSF radio website , accessed on January 24, 2015
  4. ↑ Article of April 17, 2013 on upcoming amalgamation of municipalities on the website of the Lisbon City Council, accessed on February 9, 2015
  5. ↑ Final article of September 18, 2013 on the dissolution of the main municipality on the official website of the dissolved municipal administration of São Julião , accessed on February 9, 2015
  6. ↑ Article of February 13, 2012 on the resignation of Relvas by 10 mayors of the Matosinhos district ( Memento of February 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) of the city portal www.porto24.pt, accessed on February 9, 2015
  7. ↑ Article on the adoption of the bill of December 21, 2012 in the daily Público , accessed on February 9, 2015
  8. ↑ Article of October 30, 2012 in the daily Público , accessed on January 30, 2015
  9. ↑ Declaration of the municipalities of November 23, 2012 ( Memento of October 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (with PDF download of the detailed declaration), on the website of the municipal association ANAFRE, accessed on January 24, 2015
  10. ^ Poster of the call for a demonstration on March 31, 2012 ( memento of October 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the community association ANAFRE, accessed on January 24, 2015
  11. ↑ Article on the voting marathon of December 21, 2012 and the daily newspaper Diário de Notícias , accessed on January 30, 2015
  12. ↑ http://www.dn.pt/inicio/portugal/interior.aspx?content_id=2961832 (link not available)
  13. ↑ a b Article of January 16, 2013 in the daily Diário de Notícias, accessed on January 30, 2015
  14. ^ Message on the resignation of Minister Relvas from April 4, 2015 on the news portal www.noticiasaominuto.com (port.), Accessed on February 9, 2015
  15. ↑ Article of June 6, 2013 in the daily newspaper Público , accessed on January 24, 2015