The Chega, CDS/PP, IL, and PSD parties voted against the project, while the PS, PAN, JPP, PCP, and Livre abstained.
The legislative initiative from the Left Bloc, which was accompanied by a petition to parliament by the Obra Vicentina de Auxílio aos Reclusos (OVAR) and the Associação Portuguesa de Apoio ao Recluso (APAR), aimed at a pardon for prisoners and gathered over 11,000 signatures by May 7, 2024.
The debate, during which parties expressed their differing positions, took place on Thursday.
The petitioners highlighted “inhumane conditions” in Portuguese prisons and “an excessively long average” sentence duration, claiming it to be “more than triple the average of European Union countries.”
The Left Bloc’s bill excluded severe offenses such as “violent crimes, crimes against life, freedom and sexual self-determination, domestic violence, corruption, or terrorism.”
It also excluded individuals who have previously benefited from amnesties.
The Left Bloc argued in its rationale that in the past 40 years, several occasions have led to the approval of amnesties, from papal visits to anniversaries of the April 25 Revolution, and most recently the World Youth Day in 2023, with Pope Francis’s presence.
The BE’s initiative proposed a pardon of one year for prison sentences up to eight years and also fines of up to 120 days, either as a primary penalty or as a substitute for prison sentences.
