Portugal’s prime minister is in a new controversy. Barely out of the ‘disconnect’ perceived during the worst of forest wildfires, tabloid Correio da Manhã has now revealed that he has “yet again” blocked access to information on his ‘declarations of assets’ (required of political figures by law).
This time, it concerns the 55 properties which he ‘declared’ to the Transparency Entity (EpT). The PM has requested that the ‘matrix numbers’ of these properties are hidden from public access.
As the paper explains, six of the properties are ‘urban’, and include Mr Montenegro’s family home in Espinho, and an apartment in Lisbon, while 46 are rustic, ‘inherited by the family’.
The PM has opposed public disclosure of information in four of the five income statements submitted to EpT since April 2024, says CM, and property matrix numbers were removed from four of these statements.
The motivation, says the paper, will have been justified as Mr Montenegro wanting to protect his family’s right to privacy, and in the interests of the security of family members (given that matrix numbers reveal the location of properties). But coming so close on the heels of the PM’s reluctance to cede public disclosure over his (former) family business – the one that essentially prompted the dissolution of parliament in March, and new legislative elections in May – the situation is being viewed as yet further sign of a form of political arrogance.
As Expresso explains, declarations by politicians of income/ assets used to be freely available on the parliamentary website. “They became more difficult after the approval of an alteration to the law in August 2024, when Luís Montenegro was already in power”.
At that point, citizens who wanted to consult information on a government member’s assets, interests, incompatibilities or impediments had to submit a “substantiated request”, says the paper..
“The same amendment restricted journalists’ access to this information, requiring them to specify the journalistic interest of the consultation – which may allow those targeted to anticipate the search and prevent the consultation.
“In February, a proposal by the PSD was passed that introduced an automatic notification to public officials ‘whenever there is any consultation of the elements of their declaration’ and also the ‘identification of the respective applicant’ – the proposal ended up falling through with the dissolution of parliament before this year’s legislative elections”.
Now, Expresso continues, much of the information that was previously public is blocked, with ‘padlock’ icons, and users are told that a consultation request is required to view declarations or that they are unavailable ‘due to professional secrecy’.
The change has drawn criticism from experts and media professionals for lack of transparency and scrutiny – a number of which have stressed that restricting access to politicians’ declarations of assets and interests is “bad practice at international level”, and smacks of perpetuating possibilities for corruption.
Certainly, CM – which broke this story in today’s paper – is under no illusions. Its deputy director general and regular columnist Eduardo Dâmaso believes the government has shown yet again that it seeks to distance itself from “the most basic demands of a democracy – public scrutiny.”
It is galling enough for journalists that the PM has shown himself to dislike press questions if they don’t go the way he wants – but it is also unsettling that the Transparency entity has granted the PM’s requests to block public access to his affairs.
Dâmaso calls it “an unacceptable step backwards in the idea of defence of the public interest. A step backwards led by the PSD which lives by propaganda, and for propaganda, that coexists very well with all kinds of economic interests, far from the most basic demands of democracy, like public scrutiny and respect for press freedom.”
All this coming (again) before key elections blows a very ill wind. PSD/ AD (the PSD-CDS/PP government coalition) will be hoping for significant gains in municipal elections in October, and then, approximately three months later, the party will clearly be hoping that its candidate, Luís Marques Mendes – a former PSD leader – will win the presidential elections.
Marques Mendes has stressed the importance of Portugal’s president having a political background. His strongest opponent – a man who spent his working life in the Navy – believes this is actually not a good starting point for an effective president at all. Electors concerned by politicians believing they have the right to block public scrutiny may well start to agree with him. ND
Source: Correio da Manhã/ Expresso
