Understanding Government Functions and the Judiciary
Each House may file motions to censure the Government, motivated and signed by 1/10 of its members. The vote, which is performed three days later to avoid voting surprise, will be nominal and therefore public, ensuring party discipline in voting. These forecasts are part of the rationalization of the parliamentary system, impeding the exercise of that motion, thus supporting the Government in power. If the motion succeeds in a House (never happened), the Government is forced to resign and call for opening a parliamentary crisis, to differentiate it from the extra-parliamentary, caused by differences between government parties. Only the House Rules provide for the censure of one or several ministers individually.
The government can ask a question of confidence, introducing a bill to a vote and condition their stay in office for approval. This figure is used when there are difficulties within the government majority, forcing a roll call and vote immediately, leaving aside alternative proposals.
After a general election, it is unusual for the government to resign and to form a new one; you get the confidence of the new houses, and established the custom of following the election of a new President of the Republic, the Government presents his formal resignation, which will not be accepted.
Functions of the Council President and Government
The President of the Council of Ministers is entrusted with the general policy direction of government, which is responsible for the maintenance of the unity of politics and administration, and coordination of the activities of the ministers, who are collectively responsible of the Council and individual acts of his Ministry. All members of the Government can be accused for crimes committed in the exercise of his functions by the Parliament and Constitutional Court judge.
The government tries to define and achieve the goals of state action by adopting its agenda as subjected to the confidence of the Chambers. Directs foreign policy, while recalling the scrutiny role for Parliament and its role in the ratification of international treaties.
It Directs the Civil Service, setting its objectives and through the appointment of senior military officers, ministers, diplomats, governors and commissioners of the Government in the Regions.
It is also the Government of the Republic raised the question of constitutionality before the Constitutional Court on of regional laws that exceed its powers or go against national interests or other regions.
The actions of Ministers in the form of ministerial decrees, the Council President, are decrees of the President of the Council of Ministers. The government can be of several types:
- Decrees of the President of the Republic and countersigned by the President of the Council or a Minister.
- Legislative decrees are legal acts, law after Parliament’s delegation, for a time and a given subject.
- Decree-laws, for extraordinary cases of necessity and urgency, in which the Government, under its responsibility, may take provisional decisions with legal force, but 5 days before presenting them to the Houses, for conversion or no law at 60 days. The governments have abused this option. The Government also uses repetition, introducing new Parliament, which has not ratified the decree, other analog content, thereby avoiding the lengthy legislative process. The Constitutional Court calls for resorting to repeating that the need still exists.
- Regulations govern. Other rules of government are not subordinate to the laws, but must be compliant with them.
The Judiciary
The Constitution states that justice is administered on behalf of the people and that judges are subject only to the law, thereby ensuring the independence of this power. This creates the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM), which decides on the status of all judges, both judges and prosecutors, ensuring their tenure and establishing the obligation to pursue prosecution of criminal proceedings. The Supreme Council of Magistracy is presided by the President of the Republic and composed by the First President and the Attorney General of the Court of Cassation, and 30 counselors (20 elected by all judges and 10 by Parliament in joint session). His term is 4 years may not be reelected immediately.