Constitutional Court president announces resignation – Portugal Resident

President of the Constitutional Court José João Abrantes announced his decision to resign as a judge of the court today, with effect from the date his successor takes office.

Abrantes, a professor at Lisbon’s NOVA School of Law and an expert in labour law, gave his reasons as “personal and institutional”. He has served as a judge on the court since July 2020, and was elected president on April 26, 2023.

Following this announcement, parliament must elect four new judges to the Constitutional Court, to replace José António Teles Pereira and Gonçalo Almeida Ribeiro, who stepped down after serving more than nine years, Joana Fernandes Costa, who has also served more than nine years, and now José João Abrantes.

“I informed the Court’s plenary session of my resignation from the posts of President and Judge of the Constitutional Court, with effect from the date on which the parliament’s elected Judge takes office to fill the vacancy now created,” José João Abrantes explains in a press release, which says he decided to step down from his post “with a sense of responsibility and in accordance with established practices that have contributed to the Court’s institutional stability”.

Abrantes justified the timing of his announcement, saying that he delayed the formal resignation to avoid triggering a leadership election while four judges were set to leave, adding that it would have been irresponsible to leave the court with only ten judges, or to elect a new president.

Abrantes also cited the importance of ongoing constitutional reviews and electoral processes in determining the most appropriate moment for his departure.

“I shall leave with the satisfaction of a job well done. The Constitutional Court, while maintaining its concern to preserve an impeccable relationship with the other branches of government, based on scrupulous mutual respect for each other’s powers, has never relinquished the full exercise of its inherent powers to assess the validity of laws, guided solely by the independent evaluative criteria of the Constitution, thereby continuing to consolidate a constitutional justice system that meets the demands of the democratic rule of law”, he added.

By delaying his resignation, Abrantes avoided an immediate vote for a new president, thereby ensuring the election would take place only after the new judges had been sworn in.

Under the law, a secret ballot is used to elect the Constitutional Court’s president and vice-president for a four-and-a-half-year term.

Judges of the Constitutional Court are appointed for a nine-year term and cease to hold office only when their successor is sworn in.

In early April, the PSD (Social Democratic Party) announced that it had agreed with the PS (Socialist Party) to postpone the election of new Constitutional Court judges until May, anticipating the possibility of having to replace another judge.

Under the parliamentary composition resulting from the May 2025 general election, a two-thirds majority (154 MPs out of 230) is required to elect new judges. However, no party currently holds enough seats to reach this threshold alone, requiring a deal among at least three political forces.

While the PSD had previously considered a deal with CHEGA to fill three vacancies, the PS warned that being excluded from the nomination process would represent a political rupture.

The Constitutional Court comprises 13 judges, 10 of whom are appointed by parliament and the other three co-opted by the former; of these, six must be chosen from among judges of other courts and the remainder from among legal experts.

Source: LUSA