Empty Chair at Belém as Portugal’s Council Debates Ukraine and Venezuela

Portugal’s top advisory body met behind closed doors last Friday, weighing the wars in Ukraine and Venezuela, while one expected face – Pedro Nuno Santos – never appeared. The session stretched into early evening, ended without public conclusions and offered a reminder that even symbolic absences can colour high-level deliberations.

At-a-glance takeaways

• 15:10: meeting begins in the Palácio de Belém’s oval room

• Pedro Nuno Santos absent – no longer PS leader, his seat technically vacant

• Focus on Ukraine troop debate and the fallout from a US strike in Venezuela

• Session ran ≈4 hours; three members departed before the gavel came down

• No formal communiqué issued – standard for the Conselho de Estado

Why Friday’s gathering mattered

The Council of State only convenes when President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa believes the political moment demands broad counsel. With Lisbon openly considering the dispatch of Portuguese forces to a potential multinational mission in Kyiv’s defence, and tens of thousands of luso-venezuelans worried about fresh instability in Caracas, the Head of State sought a broad temperature check from former presidents, parliamentary leaders and regional chiefs.

The empty chair: more than etiquette

The lone planned absence, Pedro Nuno Santos, stems from a legal quirk: he won his council seat in the previous legislature because he was Socialist Party secretary-general. Stepping down from that post automatically stripped him of the ‘inerência’ that justified his presence, yet the Assembly has not elected a replacement. Constitutional lawyers warn that such limbo situations can blunt the organ’s representative weight; under Article 17 of Law 31/84, habitual vacancies should trigger a new parliamentary ballot, something São Bento has postponed for months.

Inside the palace walls

Sources familiar with the agenda describe a brisk opening statement from Marcelo, followed by briefings from the foreign and defence ministers. The mood, one participant said, was “sombre but consensual” on Ukraine, where Lisbon’s offer of troops “at the right time and in the right format” drew broad, if cautious, assent. On Venezuela, counsellors balanced condemnation of the reported US bombardment of military depots with concern for the roughly 230 000 Portuguese nationals and descendants living in the country.

Early exits and a silent finale

By 18:45 the discussion had thinned. Miguel Albuquerque left to catch a flight to Funchal, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco headed to a previously scheduled campaign rally, and former president Aníbal Cavaco Silva excused himself on medical advice. The meeting formally closed at 19:10; as custom dictates, participants offered no hallway sound-bites and the presidency released only the statutory one-line notice that the gathering had occurred.

How the Constitution treats no-shows

Unlike parliament, the Council of State can deliberate without every seat filled. The quorum rule is simple: half the members plus one. Substitute rules, however, differ. Office-holders by inerência (the prime minister, speaker, regional presidents) are replaced by whoever constitutionally assumes their duties. Elected members, such as Mr Santos, require a fresh vote. Former presidents have no substitutes, so their non-attendance merely lowers the headcount. Scholars note the set-up prioritises flexibility over rigid completeness, but repeated vacancies can, in practice, narrow the political spectrum around the table.

What comes next for Lisbon – and for voters

With presidential elections ten days away, Friday’s session allows Marcelo to say he has done his consultative homework before the ballot. Regardless of who occupies Belém later this month, a formal decision on troop deployment to Eastern Europe now looks inevitable in the first quarter. Meanwhile the foreign ministry is drafting contingency plans for the large Portuguese diaspora in Venezuela should the security situation deteriorate.

For citizens at home, the key takeaway is that Portugal’s constitutional guardrails are holding: even when chairs sit empty, the mechanism for top-level advice continues to turn – quietly, but no less consequentially for that.