It must be lusophone week at the Semi-presidential One. Anyway, this post does not reflect up-to-date news, but it does follow on from the series of posts about presidential vetoes.

I came across the following figures for President Cavaco Silva’s first term in office. They cover the period March 2006-March 2011. (The figures are in Portuguese here and a very similar version is in English here).

They show that the president used his veto power 15 times during this period, but only one of which related to a government bill. The others related to bills proposed by deputies. The president also has the power to request the Constitutional Court to undertake a prior review of the constitutionality of laws and international agreements. President Cavaco Silva used this power 10 times, all of which related to bills proposed by deputies.

These figures are interesting because the whole of President Cavaco Silva’s first term was a period of cohabitation. Moreover, it was a very difficult period economically. However, this context did not lead to intra-executive conflict in terms of vetoes at least.