The PSD defended on Wednesday that “it is not the right time” to review the law regulating the incompatibilities of politicians, while the PS believed there are “interpretative doubts” that need to be clarified.
In a political statement in parliament, Deputy Emília Cerqueira listed several cases involving members of the government and alleged incompatibilities or conflicts of interest, focusing on that of Minister Pedro Nuno Santos, after the Observador newspaper reported that a company owned of the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing and benefited by his father from a public tender through private agreement.
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing has argued that Pedro Nuno Santos is not in an incompatible situation in the Temacal case, relying on an opinion from the Attorney General’s Advisory Board requested by the government in 2019, but is fighting the PSD this interpretation, say that the advice relates to companies owned only by family members, and not simultaneously by holders of public office.
“The PSD will also not be involved in criticism of the clarity of the law. We will only say the following: If the facts attributed to Minister Pedro Nuno Santos are confirmed, they will be regulated – without any room for doubt in the law, which is clear and crystal clear,” said the deputy.
Therefore, the PSD demanded clarification from the minister or prime minister and asked them to confirm or deny the alleged facts.
“If their veracity is confirmed, it will be up to the Constitutional Court to apply the sanctions provided for by the law, on the impulse of the Public Prosecution Service”said the deputy, without mentioning that the intended sanction in this case would be the resignation of the minister.
Aside from the specific case, the PSD opposed the revision of the law regulating the incompatibilities and impediments of holders of political and high public positions “in the wake of media cases” – although conceding that all laws are “revisable” – even after a challenge from the PS and the President of the Republic, who sent a letter to the House of Representatives on Wednesday with this request.
The vice president of the socialist bank, Pedro Delgado Alves, defended that no party can be exempted from having legislation on the drive of concrete matters and stressed that the demand from citizens has increased sharply over the past 40 years.
“We are counting on the PSD to look at the law and improve it, in cases where there are doubts – and it is certain that there are doubts”he said, calling on the PSD to contribute to this “serious and thoughtful exercise, banning populists,” implicitly referring to Chega, who has already scheduled an interpellation with the government for the 21st on these cases.
The letter sent to Parliament by the President of the Republic on Wednesday and read at the beginning of the plenary session also entered the debate in the debate by the voice of Parliament Speaker of BE, Pedro Filipe Soares, who was astonished that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in the context in this case “two laws already repealed”
“It is at least doubtful that the country’s first magistrate, a law professor, would send a letter to the Assembly of the Republic in which he puts on the table two repealed laws. Why? Any reason for the President of the Republic to a kind of suspicion about the application of the incompatibility law, what is that? I don’t understand,” he asked, defending that the current law is “clear, simple and direct”.
Pedro Delgado Alves also referred to the note sent by the head of state, but to support the need for revision of the law: “If even the President of the Republic cannot identify the legislation that is effectively in force, we have a problem with the start,” he noted.
The Parliamentary Leader of IL, Rodrigo Saraiva, has framed the letter from the President of the Republic in the realm of the “surreal things” that have happened lately in terms of incompatibilities, and defended it – without closing the door to changes in the future – that the priority should be to fully apply the current legislation, creating the Transparency Entity, planned since 2019, but not yet realized.
For Chega, Deputy Rui Paulo Sousa referred to the various cases reported in recent weeks and said that “it is already a matter of which ministers in the current government do not have relatives involved in affairs with the state”, while Communist Deputy Alma Rivera argued that as long as there is “subordination of economic power to political power, there are no valid laws”.
Montenegro wants judicial inquiry into alleged government incompatibilities
PSD chairman Luís Montenegro on Wednesday urged an “in-depth investigation” by the judicial authorities into the alleged cases of incompatibility of several members of the government to determine whether or not there had been a violation of the law. law.
“What is important in Portugal, also for the benefit of the people involved, is a thorough investigation to be able to conclude whether or not there has been a violation of the law. This is what, from our point of view, is a priority, regardless of whether we understand that the president of the republic can urge other sovereign bodies, in this case the parliament, to think about legislative instruments,” replied journalist Luís Montenegro after leaving the public with the head of state.
In the opinion of the PSD chairman, “it is important that there be no doubts” about alleged incompatibilities of members of the PS government, “and these doubts must be allayed by those responsible for enforcing the laws”.
“As far as I know, with the exception of a local government that will have or would have sought an opinion from the PGR, it is about finding out about facts that have come to the public, whether or not they are a violation of the law This is not a susceptible opinion, amenable to investigation, amenable to an investigative process which will then have to conclude whether or not there is sufficient evidence of the practice of a violation of the law,” he said.
According to Montenegro, the judicial authorities, like all Portuguese, “help the public reporting of facts that are well known and should therefore act accordingly”.
“I am sure this will happen and I believe it is in the interest of democracy, the political system and the people involved,” he said.
On Tuesday, when Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s intention to ask parliament to review the legal regime on the incompatibilities and impediments of political office holders – which has already been formalized today – became known – the PSD leader had already made changes to the law on incompatibilities denied “walking” and “thinking about concrete cases” and demanded that judicial authorities clarify whether members of the government have broken the rules.
“I had the opportunity to convey to the President of the Republic the opinion that I have also expressed publicly and that above all has this framework. We have a law that is in effect, we have matters that have become public, that are known and we have law enforcement agencies that must act in accordance with the reported facts and determine whether or not there is a violation of the law and, if there is a violation of the law, act with the consequences that the law itself determines,” he replied to journalists.
For Montenegro “like any other law, this can always be considered, changed, whatever”, but for the PSD “what matters today is determining whether the law has been complied with or not”.
“I didn’t want to divert attention from what are the cases that have been presented to theorizing about the law,” he stressed.
In recent weeks, the Ministers of Health, Manuel Pizarro, of Territorial Cohesion, Ana Abrunhosa, and of Infrastructure and Housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, and other members of the executive, have been the subject of doubts about the possibility of overcoming the regime of incompatibilities. have violated .in force applicable to holders of public office.
Source: DN
