President says he will try to ‘get to bottom’ of matter
Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has submitted requests to oppose the public consultation of his income tax returns.
After all the controversy of the last elections – powered by the PM’s family firm, and how he had not been sufficiently open about it – the problems appear to be continuing. The Entity for Transparency (EpT) has confirmed today that no consultation of the PM’s tax returns, or indeed of his assets, interests, incompatibilities (if there are any) and/ or impediments can be made until there is a final decision by the Constitutional Court.
“A request for opposition to the public consultation was requested by the holder, which is currently being analysed by EpT. For this reason, the declaration cannot be consulted”, says the watchdog.
Requests for such consultation are believed to have come from national media sources/ opposition politicians/ members of the public.
The Transparency Entity has clarified that when the interest of third parties, or the safeguarding of privacy is at stake, it is perfectly within the law for holders of political office to try and block the ‘public consultation’ of their private affairs.
On the EpT website, it is possible to see that Luís Montenegro opposed the consultation of all declarations already submitted relating to the positions of Prime Minister of the previous Government, the two terms as President of the PSD, State Councillor and Member of Parliament.
The declaration of interests relating to the position of head of the current executive has not yet been submitted, adds Lusa.
Meantime, president of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has said he will “try to find out what happened”, for the PM to ask that public consultation of his income tax returns be denied.
“I didn’t know anything, I can’t answer”, he said today when questioned by journalists at Belém Cultural Center (Lisbon).
“What we are trying to do here is to know exactly what happened, to know whether it is a reality of a certain magnitude or of another magnitude”, he said. “In other words, throughout my life I have encountered realities that are details and others that are serious, important and have more political effects.”
Asked if he was worried about the scale of this case (which has been fanned by media pressure since late last year), Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied: “I don’t know, I’m not worried yet, because if I don’t know about the case yet, I can only be worried later.”
According to Marcelo, “it is quite possible that this will also be discussed” at this week’s audience with the Prime Minister, which will be on “Thursday or Friday”.
As this latest kerfuffle plays out, the preventive inquiry launched in March into Luís Montenegro’s former business affairs is still active and was triggered after three complaints were received – one of which was lodged by former Socialist MEP Ana Gomes. This type of procedure is administrative and not judicial, which means that it does not allow intrusive actions – such as wiretaps or searches – without authorisation from a judge.
Portugal’s Attorney General, Amadeu Guerra, has told reporters that he expects the investigation to be concluded by mid-July – the start of the judicial holidays – although he did not give a firm commitment.
Guerra also guaranteed that PJ judicial police are analysing the vast documentation sent by Luís Montenegro, within the framework of the collaboration allowed by law in this type of case, as long as it doesn’t involve the violation of fundamental rights such as bank and/ or tax secrecy.
Sources: LUSA/ Observador
