PS President Says Advisory Functions Are More Important Than Places of Work

The President of the PS said this Friday that the functions of parliamentary advisers are more important than the place of work, and considered that what happened to the SDP “partly did not happen because of what happened.”

At the end of the visit to the headquarters of the World Youth Day in Lisbon, Carlos Cesar was asked if the PS had parliamentary-funded advisers who work for the party, for example, at the headquarters, and he stated that “the place of work does not matter, what matters is the function that people perform.”

“I am the chairman of the Socialist Party, a non-executive position, and therefore I do not follow current governance issues, but intuitively it seems to me that in general political parties use these funds for party activities in general, sometimes in the parliamentary component, sometimes in the components related to the parliamentary component,” he defended.

The PS chairman also indicated that the Socialists were keen to govern the party “in accordance with what they understand by applicable legal regulations”.

“Of course, this is our situation, as I assumed with other political parties,” he said.

Carlos Cesar also denied that the IU has cause for concern in the event that the judiciary decides to investigate other parties, stating: “If the IU understands that the way it manages its current affairs from an administrative point of view, in terms of the funding it has, is consistent with its understanding of the current legislation, I see no reason to worry.”

With regard to the searches of the PSD by the prosecutor’s office, which is investigating alleged improper funding of the party from funds intended for parliamentary advisers, the chairman of the PS stated that “it seemed clear that what happened in part should not have happened.”

“But the important thing is that we are learning from these cases. We could learn lessons from similar processes before, but if now, then let them learn these lessons,” he stressed.

When asked if the prosecutor’s office should provide clarification on how the operation was carried out, Cesar said that “these questions are more specific and sensitive, and political parties have no right to flaunt subpoenas with great persistence and introduce factors that interfere with the independent functioning of the judiciary.”

“In my opinion, what naturally needs to be done is a distant reflection of these facts, which will allow the institutions responsible for the investigation to conduct an investigation and properly protect the rights of those under investigation, whether they be individuals or institutions,” he said.

Carlos César also indicated that the PS had announced that it would “make an effort to present, at the beginning of the next legislative session, a clarifying rule of the existing legal order”, although the understanding of the socialists does not raise “great interpretative doubts”.

“But to be clear, we intend to do so,” he said, noting that “if the public ministry has an understanding that has been verified, if other people may also have doubts,” “it’s good to clarify what needs to be clarified.”

When asked whether Lucilia Gago should be reappointed as Attorney General of the Republic, the Socialist leader declined to answer, noting that “this is not the question on which the PS came to think.”