These positions were transmitted at the end of the meeting of the leaders' conference, which debated the powers of the President of the Assembly of the Republic in the face of speeches by deputies considered racist or hateful. A question that was brought to the leaders' conference following an incident that occurred on Friday morning, in plenary, in which the president of Chega, André Ventura, referred to the working capacity of the Turks. An expression that the President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, refused to admonish. To journalists, the leader of the PS Parliamentary Group, Alexandra Leitão, rejected putting the question related to the scope of the intervention of the President of the Assembly of the Republic in terms of possible introduction of limits to freedom of expression by deputies. And she also dismissed the need for any revision of the Parliament's Standing Orders to stop hate speech. "We are not facing a problem of freedom of expression or censorship, but a question of the dignity of parliament and respect for parliamentary debate. Because of parliamentary immunity, which is very well enshrined in our Constitution, there must be self-regulation by parliament," argued the former socialist minister. From Alexandra Leitão's perspective, the issue in question is the Standing Orders and not freedom of expression. "The Standing Orders give the President of the Assembly of the Republic the tools, mechanisms and powers sufficient to carry out this self-regulation. He has the prerogative to interpret the powers conferred on him by the Standing Orders. It is his responsibility," he stressed. In total opposition to this perspective, the president of the Chega bench, Pedro Pinto, considered that the president of the Assembly of the Republic, during the meeting of the leaders' conference, "gave a lesson on freedom of expression". "This is a non-issue. The freedom of deputies is at stake. The BE wanted and managed to create a case, because the PS went after it. This new PS is leaning towards the far left," he accused. Pedro Pinto also accused some benches on the left of allegedly making "anti-Semitic speeches" and attacked the socialist leader Isabel Moreira, considering that she "offended the Chega deputies" and 1.2 million Portuguese who voted for this party. He then challenged the PS to clarify whether it will review the statements made by Isabel Moreira, who accused Chega members of harassment, especially through racist and misogynistic attitudes against other deputies. For the CDS-PP, the parliamentary leader, Paulo Núncio, repudiated the statements about the Turkish people made by the president of Chega on Friday, but argued that "the right to freedom of expression should prevail". A position that was accompanied by the leader of the Liberal Initiative bench, Mariana Leitão, who praised the way José Pedro Aguiar-Branco conceives his powers, privileging freedom of expression. Mariana Leitão pointed out in this context that there are "behaviours that can lose immunity", thus being subject to criminal law. And he considered that if the president of parliament censored speeches by deputies, he would be preventing contradiction in the parliamentary debate. On the contrary, the president of the PCP bench, Paula Santos, stated that the president of parliament "has the obligation and the duty to warn" in relation to racist interventions. The parliamentary leader of the Left Bloc, Fabian Figueiredo, sought to emphasize that the president of parliament "has all the regimental powers and the duty to warn the speaker" if he makes racist or xenophobic statements. "This is the obligation of a President of the Assembly of the Republic in defence of a parliamentary debate without insults," he pointed out. Fabian Figueiredo also argued that there cannot be a duality of action when it comes to insults against another deputy - in which there is a consensus that the president of parliament must intervene - or insults directed at an external group, or a non-parliamentary citizen. "This debate is not about freedom of expression, but about the framework for exercising the powers of the president of parliament," he stressed. As for Livre, Rui Tavares referred to the defence he made at the beginning of this legislature, before the election of the President of the Assembly of the Republic, so that each of the candidates would make a presentation on how they intended to exercise their mandate and on what conception they had of the position for which they were running. An idea that he said was rejected by the PS and PSD. Also Read: AD went after PS measure? "Government does not have the gift of divination" (Portuguese version)