José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, president of the Assembly of the Republic, criticized this Tuesday, December 9, politicians who fuel the rhetoric of suspicion for their own benefit and also pointed out that the Public Ministry seems to have widespread use of wiretaps as a means of evidence.
José Pedro Aguiar-Branco was speaking in the Parliament’s Senate Room, at the end of a session promoted by the National Anti-Corruption Mechanism, in which the former socialist minister João Cravinho and the former Attorney General of the Republic, Joana Marques Vidal, were posthumously honored.
In his intervention, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco began by warning that the fact of not being on an electoral campaign gives him the freedom to look, to think and to say what he believes should be said.
“The judicial system reveals difficulty in concluding processes, the Public Prosecutor’s Office seems to have widespread use of wiretaps as a means of evidence, but the violation of judicial secrecy or the disclosure of wiretaps can have several people responsible. In a highly mediatized society, where the strategies of the various parties in the process easily go beyond the judicial space, it is risky to attribute, without proof, these leaks to just one of the participants”he warned.
Therefore, according to the President of the Assembly of the Republic, “it is important to ask, seriously: Who cares about discrediting justice?”
“Political debate too often resorts to veiled accusations that only fuel suspicion. Innuendo and anonymous denunciation have become instruments of political combat, on the left and right, on billboards, or in subtle messages. In this context, It is not surprising that the Portuguese perception of corruption has reached such negative levels”, he noted.
According to the former Minister of Justice, “the idea has become widespread that corruption is a general evil, which is, above all, an evil of politics”. A phenomenon that he considered “serious, because it confuses the innocent with the guilty, because it removes the best from public life, because it trivializes corruption”.
“Corruption exists, but we should not generalize, because its generalization dilutes responsibility and makes it more difficult to combat. And it becomes even more difficult when there are those who, in the public space, with apparent political-partisan exemption, but with an ideological agenda, choose to feed the perception of corruption for their own benefit, transforming suspicion into a tool of convenience”, he warned.
At this point, the president of parliament was even more specific in his target. “Corruption cannot be fought with games of perception, with sensationalism, with the idea that everyone is guilty from the outset. Corruption cannot be fought when politicians feed the rhetoric of suspicion, when they exchange insinuations, when they treat words like privatization or business as suspicious in nature”, he maintained.
Also according to Aguiar-Branco, corruption cannot be fought “with a regime of incompatibilities that closes politics to the best professionals in each area, that sees, in a good CV, a conflict of interests”, or that sees “a revolving door in a return to private life”.
“This permanent view of suspicion erodes public trust and alienates those who could better serve the country. Even more so, when the necessary transparency turns, too often, into unnecessary voyeurism. This look, this speech, this permanent suspicion is degrading our respect for politics”, he highlighted.
For José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, to combat corruption it is necessary to have “good people” available, with “good practices”, who constitute “good examples”.
“It is necessary to bring the best to politics and Justice”, he stated, pointing out João Cravinho and Joana Marques Vidal as examples.
“They were important not only for the reform projects they left us, not only for the judicial and political work they undertook, but also – and above all – for their example”, he added.