Politics
Spanish professor of Constitutional Law Rafael Rubio Núñez labeled as "ignorant or demagogic" the government officials who lobby for the proposal to implement indefinite presidential reelection upon the grounds that in Europe's democratic countries presidents can opt for reelection as many times as they wish.

The lecturer with Madrid's Universidad Complutense recalled that the immense majority of European nations is governed by a parliamentarian system, whereas in Venezuela operates a presidential model.

During an interview with El Universal, the expert explained the differences between these models.

"In a parliamentarian system, the Executive branch is elected by the legislature; in a presidential system, the representative of the Executive Office is directly elected by the people," he said. "As a result, in a parliamentarian system, the government is continuously followed up by the Parliament and at any time, again, at any time, its powers can be reversed. The limitation of the term in office is inherent in the presidential system. Time is virtually the only limitation that can be set to the power of a democratic president," he added.

Early this year, the coalition of leftwing political parties that backed Italian Premier Romano Prodi fractured and missed a censorship motion in the Senate. The defeat forced the prime minister to resign, when as few as 20 months had elapsed since his election. This entailed the fall of the 56th government in the European country where the Republic was established in 1946.

On November 1990, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was forced to step down by members of her own party, who had the majority in the Parliament. The reason? The image of the Executive chief had worn out after 11 years of government and her comrades were afraid of losing the general election in 1991 should he continue as the head of government.

Not so powerful
Further, Rubio Núñez stressed that European prime ministers have much fewer powers than the Venezuelan president, who, under the 1999 Constitution, was granted additional legal authority, such as dissolving the National Assembly and/or calling a referendum. Pursuant to the French Constitution, for instance, the president of the Republic, as head of state, appoints the prime minister. However, the latter is the one in charge of the government and the public administration.

Also, the French Constitution affords the president the status of supreme chief of the armed forces, as well as in the Venezuelan case, with one proviso: the president is not empowered to promote military officers.

In the meantime, in Spain and the United Kingdom, where there are parliamentarian monarchies, kings act as heads of state. In the practice, however, their role is merely symbolic. Economy, public services, military affairs and other national matters are the responsibility of the heads of governments or prime ministers.

The expert in constitutional law also said that in presidential systems, the Executive branch "lies in one man only; in the parliamentarian model it is apportioned among several persons."

If a political party has not the majority in the legislature, then it should ally with other political parties to achieve the number of positions needed to form a government. Such alliances force the majority party to surrender a significant portion of its power, i.e.: ministries and institutes, among others.

Back to the caudillo's rule
Rubio Núñez criticized President Hugo Chávez's attempt at bringing forward again this topic, despite being discussed in the draft constitutional reform bolstered in 2007 and rejected by most voters. "If we consider that the matter intended to be changed was subject to the constituent will less than one year ago, we should conclude that the proposed amendment means a fraud to the stabilizing role of the Constitution," he said.

The lecturer did not hesitate to say that the potential materialization of the amendment to article 230 could go in the direction of a dictatorship.

"To prevent the constitutional restrictions to expanding power is just the first step towards the limitation of powers' severability and their eventual disappearance. In Venezuela, the Constitution runs the risk of losing its regulating strength to become a mere sheet of paper, protecting no more the people against a caudillo's ambitions."

Historically, citizens have been the most harmed in caudillo-like trends -in Europe we are very knowledgeable about it."

Translated by Conchita Delgado

Juan Francisco Alonso
EL UNIVERSAL