CHAPTER 28

ETERNITY CLAUSES AND DEFENSE OF THE CONSTITUTION

Article 175 — Eternity Clause

  1. The following principles and institutions are unamendable and shall remain beyond the power of revision by Parliament, referendum, emergency authority, judicial reinterpretation, or any other public act: a) human dignity; b) the democratic and parliamentary nature of the Republic; c) sovereignty of the people; d) separation of powers; e) independence of the judiciary and the Constitutional Court; f) fundamental rights and freedoms as the core of the constitutional order; g) the secular character of the state; h) the unitary character of the Republic; i) the prohibition of dictatorship and unconstitutional usurpation of power.

  2. Any act contrary to paragraph 1 is null and void.

Article 176 — Prohibition of Dictatorship and Personal Rule

  1. No constitutional office, law, party, movement, security institution, emergency regime, or referendum may establish dictatorship, one-person rule, one-party rule, indefinite rule, or concentration of unlimited power.

  2. Constitutional interpretation shall favor the prevention of authoritarian capture.

  3. The Constitution shall be defended against attempts to hollow out democracy through formally legal but substantively anti-democratic means.

Article 177 — Duty of Constitutional Loyalty

  1. All public officeholders swear loyalty to the Constitution, not to any person, faction, party, office, dynasty, or informal power structure.

  2. Public officials shall actively respect and defend the constitutional democratic order within the limits of law.

  3. Grave betrayal of constitutional office through usurpation, intentional constitutional sabotage, or participation in dictatorship constitutes a grave offense under constitutional law.

Article 178 — Right to Constitutional Resistance

  1. If any person or body attempts to abolish the constitutional democratic order and no other effective constitutional remedy remains, the people have the right to resist such usurpation by lawful and proportionate means.

  2. Constitutional law shall interpret this right narrowly and in defense of democracy, human dignity, and the sovereignty of the people.

  3. This Article shall not be used to justify private violence, unlawful militias, or partisan insurrection outside constitutional defense.

Article 179 — Interpretation in Favor of Democracy

  1. All constitutional organs, courts, and public officials shall interpret this Constitution in a manner that preserves democracy, rights, pluralism, accountability, and the rule of law.

  2. Where doubt exists between an interpretation enabling concentration of power and one preserving constitutional balance, the latter shall prevail.

  3. The Constitution shall be read as a coherent whole, and no clause shall be interpreted in isolation so as to destroy the spirit and structure of democratic government.

Article 179a — Institutional Duties in Defense of the Constitutional Order

  1. Where any branch of government, institution, or officeholder takes or announces action that the Constitutional Court determines constitutes a grave and imminent threat to the democratic constitutional order or an eternity-clause principle, the following mandatory responses are triggered:

    a) the Constitutional Court shall, within twenty-four (24) hours of a credible application by any person with standing, issue a provisional constitutional defense order suspending the threatening act or measure, pending a full hearing within seventy-two (72) hours;

    b) the Speaker of the Lower House shall convene an emergency plenary session of Parliament within twenty-four (24) hours of the Constitutional Court’s provisional order and shall place the matter as the sole item on the agenda;

    c) the Prosecutor General shall initiate an investigation into whether the threatening act constitutes a criminal offense under this Constitution within forty-eight (48) hours of the Constitutional Court’s order;

    d) independent constitutional bodies — the IEA, the Ombudsman, the Anti-Corruption Body, and the Audit Institution — shall, within their respective mandates, take all lawful steps to prevent the threatened constitutional violation and shall publish a public statement within forty-eight (48) hours describing the steps they are taking.

  2. No official, ministry, security service, or court may obstruct the execution of a constitutional defense order issued by the Constitutional Court. Obstruction of a constitutional defense order is a grave crime against the Republic.

  3. Civil servants and members of the security forces who receive an instruction to obstruct a constitutional defense order shall refuse it under Article 110 of this Constitution. The duty to refuse applies regardless of the rank of the person issuing the instruction.

Article 179b — Early Warning Mechanism

  1. The Constitutional Court shall maintain a standing early warning function to monitor and assess systemic threats to the constitutional order. The Court shall publish an annual democratic integrity assessment identifying any patterns, legislative trends, or institutional developments that raise constitutional concern, whether or not they have yet produced justiciable disputes.

  2. The Ombudsman, the independent media regulator, the IEA, and the Anti-Corruption Body shall each contribute to the annual assessment by submitting a written report to the Constitutional Court within sixty (60) days of the end of each calendar year.

  3. Parliament shall hold a public debate on the annual democratic integrity assessment within thirty (30) days of its publication. The Government shall respond with a written statement within fourteen (14) days of the debate.