４野党、臨時国会召集を要求　憲法根拠、政権は否定的

　立憲民主、国民民主、共産、社民の野党４党は３１日、新型コロナウイルスの感染再拡大や豪雨災害の対応について安倍晋三首相にただす必要があるとして、憲法５３条に基づき臨時国会の速やかな召集を政府に要求した。これに対し、政権側は早期召集に否定的。野党は「国民に向き合わない姿勢」を浮き彫りにし、揺さぶる狙いだ。
　要求は４野党の国対委員長らが大島理森衆院議長を通じて文書で伝達。この後、立憲の安住淳国対委員長は記者団に「わが国は未曽有の危機にあり、国会を開かないのは政府の怠慢だ。国民の負託に応える時だ」と強調した。
　大島氏は自民、公明両党の国対委員長を呼び、「コロナ禍での国会のあるべき姿を与党もよく考えてほしい」と要請。自民党の森山裕国対委員長は記者団に、８月４日に安住氏と会談して対応を協議すると説明した。
　菅義偉官房長官は記者会見で「与党と相談して対応したい」としつつ、「コロナ対策に関係省庁を挙げて取り組んでいる。通常国会で成立した（２０２０年度）本予算、補正予算の執行に取り組みたい」と述べるにとどめた。（2020/07/31-11:36）

Four Japanese opposition parties urged the government on Friday to convene an extraordinary session of the Diet, the country's parliament, immediately to address a series of challenges, including the continuing novel coronavirus crisis and recent heavy rain disasters.
   The demand, based on Article 53 of the Constitution, was submitted by executives of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Democratic Party for the People, the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party through Tadamori Oshima, speaker of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet.
   The parties are claiming that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe needs to explain his government's responses to the virus crisis and the natural disasters.
   But the government and the ruling camp, led by the Liberal Democratic Party, are reluctant to accept the demand as they hope to prevent the Abe administration from being grilled over the issues by the opposition side.
   "While Japan is facing an unprecedented crisis, the government is neglecting its responsibility by not holding an extraordinary Diet session," Jun Azumi, Diet affairs chief of the CDPJ, told reporters.