Francisco Assis, president of the Economic and Social Council, has no doubts. “What happened this week is so serious” that the “President of the Republic must speak out and I am convinced that he will”.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has already spoken about the matter of “thinking” about the law, but for the former MEP and socialist parliamentary leader, what happened “is no longer a problem of justice. It is a problem of justice policy. From politics in the sense to the most demanding of the word, in the sense of the political organization of the Portuguese state”.
Article 5 of the Party Finance Act provides that “each parliamentary group, the sole deputy representing a party and the deputy not enrolled in a parliamentary group of the Assembly of the Republic shall receive an annual grant for advisory services to deputies, for political and party activities in which they participate and for other operating expenses”.
Marcelo Rebelo believed that despite receiving advisory services for “political and partisan activities” from parliamentary groups, “it is not easy to define boundaries” because there is a “grey area”.
In the law or in the interpretation made by the MP? Marcelo did not publicly reflect on the doubt.
Assis therefore believes that “all those who have political responsibilities in Portugal (…) should not resort to ambiguous statements. They should take very clear positions” because “this was not only an attack on Dr. Rui Rio, this was an attack on Portuguese democratic institutions”.
“It doesn’t put the prosecution in order,” he argued, but it’s almost as if he believes that “there are parts of the justice system that are behaving in a completely unacceptable way, endangering the basic principles of a rule of law . articulation with some social communication”.
Conclusion? What is happening “even takes on criminal contours, which calls into question the basic rules of the rule of law”.
“There are parts of the judicial system that are behaving in a completely unacceptable way.” Francisco Assis
Rio, accusing the MP of not knowing what he is looking for and speaking of “revenge”, left a warning to current political leaders: “If the President of the Republic, the Assembly and the parties do not have the courage to say enough is enough, there will come a day when someone will say enough”.
For Montenegro “there are things that are in fact difficult to explain” and he gave examples: “How come different electronic equipment, computers, were cloned at the party’s national headquarters, how was the personal phone number of an ex – leader of the PSD for this reason, there is no reason we can understand where such steps would be useful in fulfilling what this inquiry is”.
The PSD leader, who believes that Rio and all previous presidents “met all standards for the functioning of the party, including those related to the parliamentary group”, does not accept that the MP’s investigation undermines the “political action” of the party. party determines, or that the PSD is the target of “an investigation that could disrupt our political work”.
Changes in current legislation? Montenegro believes that “the law in force today is sufficient”, but admits that changes could be made “if there is some clarification, any interpretation that removes any doubt”.
“We cannot accept any kind of conditioning of our political action (…) a probe that could interfere with our political work”. Luis Montenegro
The understanding of the PSD is the same as that of the PS, which will present a rule to clarify the law.
“We are mindful of her [a lei] today it already allows in an absolutely clear way an integrated management and a shared management of resources between political parties and parliamentary groups”, but to leave no doubt, the PS “takes the initiative to clarify in an absolutely clear and that this possibility is one arising from the Law on the Financing of Political Parties,” announced PS Deputy Secretary General João Torres.
For the leader of the IL, Rui Rocha, the “interpretation of the law is clear, it is that the funds received from the AR should be used to pay for the work done for the AR. Therefore, it seems me that there is no major problem to discuss (…) I am looking at this and it seems to me that if it is true that Rui Rio and the PSD are being investigated for some kind of practice of this nature, there may be other parties who well done and I still haven’t heard from anyone to deny”.
The PCP believes that legislative changes are not necessary, while Chega accuses the PSD and PS of collusion to “condition justice”.
“The law says that each parliamentary group is allocated an amount of money for advisory services to deputies and for political and party activities”. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
Faced with the controversy, and after receiving the letter from the PSD criticizing the actions of the MP, the PGR, Lucília Gago, confirmed that the complaints of the Social Democrats “will be subject to follow-up and analysis “, which “shall be considered, analyzed and, where appropriate, subject to appropriate management action if deserving of such consideration”.
Source: DN
