But more than half have signed a letter saying it exist…
In a new development in the ongoing very public agonies aired by politicians and public prosecutors, the minister of Justice has told journalists that as far as she is concerned, there is no ‘orchestrated campaign’ against Attorney General Lucília Gago, or her Public Prosecutor’s Office.
This (non-existent) orchestrated campaign however has been in the air for months: the Attorney General alluded to it during a congress in March, and again in her ‘explosive’ interview with RTP earlier this week (explosive because it has divided opinions even further, and left the task of choosing Ms Gago’s replacement when her mandate expires in October arguably more difficult).
Following the interview on Monday night, Ms Júdice told reporters that she would not be commenting on Ms Gago’s claims. Now she has, on the sidelines of the closing sessions of training courses at the centre for judicial studies in Lisbon.
“There is no campaign orchestrated by the Minister of Justice against the Attorney general or any other entity”, she said – adding that there was also “no climate of tension” with Ms Gago.
“The prosecutor is finishing her mandate. We are not going to foster any climate of tension with her”.
But the tension is already there. Expresso today headlines with the story that “half the prosecutors” in the Public Prosecutor’s Office have already signed a letter “against politicians”.
Politicians – and other public figures – formulated their ‘manifesto of the 50’ some months ago, complaining about the work of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the wake of two investigations that toppled governments (one, Operation Influencer, still without any formal charges, the other a corruption probe centring on political power and influence in Madeira, also without formal charges). This manifesto has already been ‘taken’ / discussed with President Marcelo.
Ergo, there is tension, if that is the word.
Expresso this week acknowledges this ‘tension’ with numerous references to Lucília Gago, the interview, its implications and what comes next. There is even space given to Lucília Gago on Expresso’s satirical page ‘O Inimigo Público’. One of the many commentaries centres on the fact that, certainly in Expresso’s opinion, the Attorney General’s interview ‘officialised’ the war between the public prosecutor’s office and politicians. “It is up to (president) Marcelo and (prime minister) Montenegro to bury the hatchet.
“The interview did not resolve the problem”, stresses the paper. “It made it worse”.
By “officialising the existence of a climate of institutional war”, Ms Gago “did a bad service to the Republic” and further complicated the task of finding her successor.
Whoever does take on the (six-year mandate) of Portugal’s next Attorney General will “inherit a government that sees disorder within the Public Prosecutor’s Office; a wide party-political consensus that sees systemic errors and violations of rights and guarantees; a counter-manifesto delivered by prosecutors, subscribed to by more than half of them pointing to a conspiracy, which is exactly the thesis of the Attorney General and SMMP, the union of public prosecutors.
“Marcelo and Montenegro will now have a difficult mission: finding someone who can bring order without opening (further) war”.
The paper suggests the only way to do this is “involve the PS” (meaning the Socialist party, which has been complaining ever since it lost the elections last March that Luís Montenegro’s new government is arrogant…)
