The Ethics Action Movement (MAE) defended this on Tuesday “candidates for political office sign under oath a statement in which they assume a set of legal and ethical requirements established for the exercise of office”.
This movement, founded in January 2021 by figures such as economist António Bagão Félix, jurist Paulo Otero or doctors Pedro Afonso and Victor Gil, understands that, “in a scenario of collapse of ethical minima of behavior of rulers and those responsible for high administrative positions involving public money”it is absolutely necessary that “in the event that they are found not to meet some of the conditions outlined in this commitment, they must be held accountable and automatically resign from their appointment”.
“Ethical indifference destroys politics and weakens democracy”finds the MAE attractive “to political parties that promote social and political ethics, protect the prestige of public institutions, preserve the value of the democratic representation of political office-holders, and thus defend democracy”.
For the MAE, “the exercise of politics is not immune to ethics,” and therefore, based on the “European Cultural Tradition of Judeo-Christian Matrix”should the ethical dimension of the exercise of political power be centered on rules such as “power is a service and not an advantage or privilege to those who exercise it”, “justice is the goal and basis of power, because ‘where there is no justice there is no state'” or “since he has to think only of public affairs, the ruler cannot have private affairs”.
In a statement, the Movimento Ação Ética also underlines that “there is no politics without ethics, nor legitimate rulers without a personal ethical dimension of behavior in public life”.
This note has been published in response to the various cases that have shocked the government in recent months.
Last week, Agriculture Secretary Carla Alves resigned on the grounds that she did not have the “political and personal conditions” to take office, a day after taking office, after the seizure of accounts was reported. the outgoing government official and her husband and former mayor of Vinhais, Américo Pereira.
A week earlier, Finance Minister Fernando Medina had fired the Secretary of State for Finance, less than a month after Alexandra Reis took office and after four days of controversy over TAP’s €500,000 compensation. Following this case, Pedro Nuno Santos, Minister of Infrastructure responsible for TAP, and the Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Hugo Mendes, resigned.
In October, Deputy Secretary of State Miguel Alves resigned after it became known that he had advanced 300,000 euros for the construction of a pavilion in Caminha when he was president of that municipality.
Source: DN
