António Costa spent an entire afternoon in parliament this Thursday defending that the new Secretary of State for Agriculture was able to stay in government (“Am I going to fire someone’s wife because the man is being accused?”) and of one of the in an instant his entire speech collapsed at the intervention of the President of the Republic, who had just arrived in Lisbon from Rome, where he had gone to take part in the funeral ceremonies of Benedict XVI.
“The problem is neither legal nor ethical. It is a negative political weight, in the person who knows he showed up with that weight.”
Speaking to journalists at the Teatro São Luíz in Lisbon, where he was going to present an Amnesty International magazine, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that in his opinion the issue was neither judicial, nor criminal, nor even ethical, but simply political: ” The problem is not legal and for now not ethical, it is a negative political weight, in the person who knows he appeared with that weight.”
Someone who “has a close family relationship with someone accused in a trial of a certain nature, regardless of the criminal nature, has, in his view, a political constraint from the outset, it is a political burden”. And by the way, the secretary of state should have even done a “self-examination”, that is, “say: I have nothing against me legally, now, this reduces political power or it does not. say: it does not decrease. It’s a judgment. If that’s how you understand it, go ahead. And then the future will tell whether it diminished or not.”
Marcelo’s statement took effect immediately. Less than twenty-six hours after taking office as Secretary of Agriculture, Carla Alves announced that she was stepping down, having concluded that she could not continue in the executive branch. At that point, the doubt turned into another: would the Minister of Agriculture – who was the one who invited Carla Alves to the government – have the conditions to remain in government.
Marcelo thus vetoed the continuity of Carla Alves in government, but he did more than that. He also threw in the trash a proposal that António Costa had made during the afternoon in the debate on the motion of censure against the government tabled by the Liberal Initiative (and which, as expected, ultimately failed, with the votes against from the PS , PCP and Livre, the abstentions of the PSD, BE and PAN and only the votes for the proponents and Chega).
“I will propose to the President of the Republic that we succeed in establishing a circuit between my proposal and the appointment of members of the government, which will allow us to avoid ignoring facts that we cannot know and guarantee greater transparency and confidence of everyone at the time of appointment.”
In response to an intervention by Inês Sousa Real, the only member of the PAN, the head of government explained his idea: “I will propose to the President of the Republic that we succeed in establishing a circuit between my proposal and the appointment of members of the government that will enable us to avoid ignoring facts that we have no way of knowing and guarantee greater transparency and trust for all at the time of appointment.
Immediately realizing that he would be partly responsible in this way, Marcelo was very clear in rejecting the idea: “If there is an intervention, and we will see whose, how, legality problems, constitutionality problems or problems of impediments as to who will be appointed to certain positions such as those mentioned above, I think this should be done before the government puts forward the proposal [ao Presidente da República]”.
“The President of the Republic cannot replace the Prime Minister [e] when the president starts forming governments himself, the system becomes presidential.”
That is, the vote “should propose before the government, not after it has proposed” – “because imagine if it happens after the proposal that in one, two, three, four cases it turns out that the proposals have vulnerabilities – it was better not to have proposals to the President of the Republic and therefore to play it safe”.
Moreover – he added – this would be a change in the nature of the regime: “the president of the republic cannot replace the prime minister.” [e] when the president starts forming governments himself, the system becomes presidential”.
As in the case of Miguel Alves or Alexandra Reis, Carla Alves is also influenced by the past: a legal process in which her husband is accused of various crimes (including corruption) committed during the time he presided over the council. . However, as she is not a defendant, a bank account that she shares with her husband is seized.
Source: DN
