Filipe Amorim / EPA
MARCELO REBELO DE SOUSA
Data from the corruption perception rate in Portugal, eventual remodeling in the government and “the youngest are always better than us.”
O President of the Republic manifested itself concerned with the negative evolution of Corruption perception index in Portugal and argued that “the mechanisms must be renewed and permanently improved.”
Speaking to journalists, at the headquarters of the Portuguese Red Cross, in Lisbon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa signaled those of the 2024 corruption index today released by the International Transparency Organization.
“It is still a negative and worrying evolution The one that has happened this past year and in recent years, ”said the head of state.
Recalling the warnings he made about this matter, “namely in opening sessions of the judicial year”, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa argued that “ mechanisms must be renewed and permanently improved“.
According to the President of the Republic, the fight against corruption goes “the functioning of the investigation, the means of investigation, the investigation resources, the type of entities that participate in this investigation also outside the judicial power.”
“A justice reformObviously, it is a point that at this moment seems to reap the very wide agreement, would say of regime, in Portuguese society. But besides, the entity dedicated to the matter of transparency took some time to be created, to work, ”he said.
Referring to the entity for transparency, the head of state added that “it partly replaced an entity that worked with the Court of Auditors” and considered that the delay in this process, such as the extinction of the foreigners and borders (SEF ), has “many consequences in the lives of the Portuguese”.
In your opinion, in terms of corruption, as in the area of security, “What matters is not abstract safety, nor is corruption that exists or does not exist, what is the image that people have about corruption and about security. ”
“Why It is this perception that generates insecurityand it is this perception that generates greater or less confidence in combating corruption“He maintained.
According to data from International Transparency, Portugal obtained 57 points in the 2024 corruption perception rate – on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 corresponds to the very corrupt perception and 100 of very transparent – one of the worst results of Western Europe, with a four -point drop from the previous year.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stressed that the perception of corruption “has a negative evolution in several European countries, in several Portuguese -speaking countries, but has a negative perception in Portugal, compared to values namely from 2012 or even older”.
From these data, to the President of the Republic “an issue that has to do with the Portuguese image of the mechanisms to combat corruption”,
“It has to do with the operation of justice In terms of time, it has to do with the functioning of the entity that has been in charge, created a few years ago, the matter of transparency, has to do with pedagogy about corruption, has to do with a set of factors, looking For the testimonials that are given, ”he listed.
Successor of Hernani Dias
The President of the Republic stated that did not receive the Prime Minister the proposal for New Secretary of State for Local Administration and Territory Planning and refused to comment on whether it could be a wider remodeling.
Asked if he has already received the name of the person who will replace the dismissal Hernâni Dias, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied: “No”.
Questioned if it was told that the inauguration would be held on Tuesday, the head of state confirmed that “I had told it” In his calendar, although stressing that “there was no closed commitment to the Prime Minister”, Luís Montenegro.
The President of the Republic now expects possession “ next few days ”, Before traveling to Brazil over the weekend.
Interrogated if this will be a remodeling of a secretary of state or wider, he retaliated, “I have nothing to say about it.”
“As you know, each Prime Minister presents, in his time, and he is the judge of time, the proposal or proposals he has to make: and the president accepts or not accepts, but, accepting, that is normally the rule, After immediately the date for possession is set, ”he added.
Hernâni Dias happened two weeks ago on January 28, after being reported that he had created two real estate companies while ruler, responsible for the newly published decree that alters the legal regime of territorial management instruments, the controversial law of soils.
Shortly before his dismissal was announced, as if the Secretary of State was able to keep up, the President of the Republic replied that this was a decision “of his own or the head of government.”
Following this resignation, on January 30, the President of the Republic told reporters that he dismissed Hernâni Dias the same day he received from the Prime Minister the dismissal proposal.
Mendes Marks
The President of the Republic He left to respond to the critic of the presidential candidate Mendes Marks To his comments on promulgations and vetoes, but said he learned as a teacher that “the younger ones are always better.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa reiterated that he will remain neutral in relation to the presidential 2026, without appreciation or manifesting “preference or not preference, proximity or not proximity” in relation to any candidate.
Asked if he agrees with Luís Marques Mendes, who in an interview with, on Monday night, considered that “creates noise, bare instability” The President comment on laws that promulgates and diplomas he veto, the head of state did not respond directly to this criticism, but assured that he will maintain the same practice until the end of his term.
“This is one thing, what I adopted as a way of being. Now, there is one thing I learned too, it was not as president, it was as a teacher-president is ten years, and teacher is all his life. One thing is learned as a teacher: that the youngest are always better than us“He said then.
According to the President of the Republic, “in each new generation there is always a creativity, an imagination and a difference.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that “he could give several examples” among the politicians whose students had, as a university professor of law, “students who were presidents of the European Commission, prime ministers, were several, who had international positions.”
“And others who were professionally or socially very important in all sectors of Portuguese life. I must admit that I find them better than the teacher, because they gained with, not just the experiences of the past, but the innovation of the future, ”he added.
As for the comments you make about promulgation e vetoes, He said that in the grades published on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic on the Internet, he explains why he decided certain promulgations, “despite some criticism, divergences, tight majorities, doubts that must be clarified, and then are clarified”, which is not Your understanding “is good in interpretative terms.”
“When veto, it is easier because the veto ends up transmitting, either the government or the Assembly of the Republic, the background reasons or the reasons, of time, of form, of my position. So I think it’s a practice that I have adopted, and I will adopt until the end of my term, ”he added.
Asked it is expected that his way of playing the role of president is a theme in the campaign for the 2026 presidential, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied that when he was a candidate in 2016 at the end of Cavaco Silva’s mandates, “what if He debated above all was the situation that lived the country, the challenges that existed at that time, and that were many, ”but” this changes from election to election. “
“Therefore, the President of the Republic in Functions The best he does is maintain neutrality and leave candidates, candidates for candidates who will emerge or have already arisen to choose the topics that are the most suitable, at such a difficult time as this is , in the world, in Europe, and also with its own aspects in Portugal, ”he said.
