PM writes to president suggesting more vetting of appointees
The president of Portugal said that a possible system of scrutiny of possible nominees for government positions should be done before the government proposes the appointees and not afterwards.
Portugal’s prime minister sent a letter to the president on Thursday evening suggesting the creation of a verification mechanism in the process of nominating government jobs, an idea he had already broached in parliament.
This initiative was transmitted by a source from the prime minister’s office in response to Lusa about the development of this proposal put forward by António Costa on Thursday afternoon during the debate of the no-confidence motion on the government presented by IL.
“The prime minister addressed on Thursday evening a letter to the president of Portugal suggesting a proposal for a verification mechanism to be discussed with the head of state,” a source from the executive leader’s office replied to Lusa.
In parliament, during the debate on the IL motion, after being questioned by PAN member of parliament Inês Sousa Real, the prime minister referred to a circuit to “ensure greater transparency and confidence of all at the time of appointment” of members of the government, considering that the current system can be improved.
On this occasion, he stressed that he would first speak with Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and then announce what he would propose “so that the circuit can be improved because it can be improved”.
“I don’t think we can and should normalise anomalous situations even if they are cases and little cases. They have to be taken seriously, and above all, you have to believe that we take them seriously,” he said.
Shortly afterwards, the president of Portugal said that a possible system of scrutiny of possible nominees for government positions should be done before the government proposes the appointees and not afterwards.
“If there is an intervention, and we will see from whom, how, to determine problems of legality, problems of constitutionality or problems of impediments in relation to who is going to be nominated for certain positions, such as these that have been spoken of, I think it should be before the government presents the proposal [to the president],” the he told reporters at Lisbon’s São Luiz theatre.
