The former chairman of the PSD Jurisdiction Council (CJN) has been nominated for one of the categories of the Tágides Prize, which aims to recognize people who have worked in the fight against corruption and the transparency of public life, but he has had his promoters removed from the 2022 candidate list. This is because Paulo Colaço considers it a “contempt” to be nominated in the same category as Pedro Nuno Santos, Minister of Infrastructure.
“I am mainly talking about the disrespect it is for me to belong to the same category as Pedro Nuno Santos, whose insolence prevents him from seeing that he has broken a law and can no longer be a minister. It is also disrespectful to in the same category as Ana Gomes, whose ‘two standards and two measures’ make her pursue only her enemies. This is a feeble merit, confusing justice with vengeance.”says Paulo Colaço in the letter he addressed to the initiators of the prize and to which the DN had access.
The former Social Democratic leader also protests that Rui Pinto, who he recalls is responsible for 90 crimes, is among the prize finalists. “Extortion is one of them,” he says.
“The Tágides Award, an idea that seems good to me globally, is being squeezed by such choices that are incompatible with the announced spirit,” said the former chairman of the PSD’s “court”.
On the other hand, Paulo Colaço emphasizes that the list of finalists also includes such figures as judge Carlos Alexandre, socialist João Cravinho and former president of the Court of Auditors Guilherme d’Oliveira Martins. Which in his opinion is also a “contempt for anyone with relevant work in the fight against corruption who has to compete with me, which I have much less”.
Fight in PSD
Although the former Social Democratic leader says in the letter that he was “astonished by the appointment”, the fact is that as chairman of the CJN he was involved in a fight with the direction of Rui Rio in the name of party rules.
It was during his tenure as president that the CJN imposed a warning sanction on parliament leader Adão Silva, a decision that was later overturned by the Constitutional Court (TC). The CJN ruled that both Adão Silva and Rui Rio (who had no sanction) violated party statutes for failing to follow a sectoral motion passed at the 38th Congress calling for a referendum on euthanasia.
In a July 15 ruling, the TC canceled the warning sanction after Adão Silva appealed the decision. This episode sparked harsh criticism between management and the chairman of the jurisdiction, with the PSD’s parliamentary leader saying – after the TC’s decision was announced – that “if he were in his place” the chairman of the national jurisdiction he would resign.
The PSD Standing Committee – the hard core of Rio’s leadership – also accused the Jurisdiction Chair of promoting a “political process” with the issue of euthanasia and the National Political Commission accused him of harming the party at a time of “focus” in the local authorities, with a “sterile and unnecessary disruption” as the trust ties between national authorities had been “attacked”. Paulo Colaço responded at the time by accusing the board of an “unacceptable attack on the honor and quality” of the CJN members.
The price
Established in 2001, the Tágides Award is promoted annually and aims to highlight people who have worked in the fight against corruption. It was created by All4Integrity, an impartial civil society to civil society association, created from an individual initiative of André Corrêa d’Almeida, Columbia University, launched on the streets of New York on October 5, 2020, under the designation # free my country against corruption.
The winners of the first edition of the prize, sponsored by the President of the Republic, were Maria José Morgado, Joana Marques Vidal and Rui Nabeiro, with Rui Pinto receiving an honorable mention.
Source: DN
