The president of the republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, defended this Thursday that a possible system of scrutiny of possible candidates for government positions should be implemented before the government proposes the rulers, not after.
“If there is any intervention, and we’ll see who, how, to identify legality issues, constitutionality issues, or impediment issues with regard to who gets appointed to certain positions, like the one you talked about, I think it should be before the government submits the proposal [ao Presidente da República]”the head of state told journalists at the Teatro São Luiz in Lisbon.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa took this position after being questioned about the announcement by the Prime Minister, António Costa, that he would propose the President of the Republic “a circuit between the proposal and the appointment of members of the government” that ensures “greater transparency and trust for everyone” and allows “avoiding ignorance of facts”.
The head of state, who was left out of this solution, refuted that inquiry “it must be before the government proposes it, not after it is proposed”.
“For suppose, after the proposal, it turns out that in one, two, three, four cases the proposals appear to have weaknesses – it would be better not to have any proposals to the President of the Republic and therefore to be the safe side”argued.
When asked if the President of the Republic would balance a check between the government’s proposal and the nomination, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied that “it’s not the problem to have everything under control, it’s the problem to prepare these kinds of proposals”.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa started by saying that he would not comment on this matter: “I will not comment. It is a matter in which the final say, if it be a law, lies with the Assembly of the Republic. If it is not a law, we shall see what form it takes, how it is done, at what time it is”.
“I think if there’s a time, it should be before a process is passed. We need to see what’s out there in that particular case. This should be done before the government presents a proposal to the president.”he added.
In retrospect, he thought that “one should look at other rights and the experience of other countries”.
“There are countries where parliament intervenes, the US Congress intervenes in appointments – it’s a system. There are other countries where there is no intervention at all.”he said.
The head of state emphasized that currently “control is much greater” and “the rhythm of political life is such that the need to replace rulers arises with a frequency that did not exist in the past”.
“So this means that the system to be adopted has to be a well thought out system, it has to be a system before there is a formulation of a proposal”he reaffirmed, noting: “Sometimes it’s not that easy, because the proposal comes overnight, because there’s a gap overnight, because there’s a layoff overnight.”
“I think anything about improving the level of pre-checking on what happens next is a complication because there’s already an appointment and then there’s a need to run functions with a political mindset from the start.” fragility or even to replace new ones, anything done in this sense should be done before even before the President of the Republic receives the Prime Minister’s proposal”insisted.
As for his role in appointing government officials, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa claimed so “The president cannot replace the prime minister” is that “if the president starts forming governments himself, the system becomes presidential”.
Source: DN
