| Constitutional revision: accord leaves out officialization of Crioulo | ||||
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The PAICV and the MpD will, through their respective leaders, sign a memorandum of understanding today aimed at revising Cape Verde’s Constitution. The two parties managed to come to an agreement regarding access to and the functioning of the Supreme Court of Justice and the High Council of Judicial Magistrates. However, another knot in negotiations – the officialization of Crioulo, the Cape Verdean language – had to be set aside for the time being in a concession made by the governing PAICV, our sources has learned. Prime Minister José Maria Neves and MpD leader Carlos Veiga met yesterday in one of the rooms of the National Assembly to put the finishing touches on the accord for the revision of Cape Verde’s Constitution, thus confirming the optimism that marked the two previous meetings between the two leaders. Essentially, the governing PAICV and opposition MpD managed to bring their respective positions closer together regarding access to and the makeup of the Supreme Court of Justice and the High Council of Judicial Magistrates. Another point that opposed the two largest parties in parliament – the adoption of Cape Verdean as an official language alongside Portuguese – had to be set aside for the time being. In practice, this amounts to a concession o the part of the PAICV to the MpD, which believes that conditions are not yet in place to adopt Crioulo as Cape Verde’s official language alongside Portuguese. In the MpD’s view, article 9 of the current Constitution remains valid – in it, the State promises to promote “conditions for the officialization of the Cape Verdean mother tongue in parity with Portuguese.” Rui Semedo and José Manuel Andrade accompanied the leader of the PAICV, while the president of the MpD was accompanied by Elísio Lima and Eurico Monteiro. |
