José Pedro Aguiar-Branco spoke in the Senate Chamber of parliament during the closing of a session promoted by the National Anti-Corruption Mechanism, where former socialist minister João Cravinho and former Prosecutor General Joana Marques Vidal were posthumously honored.
In his speech, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco began by noting that not being in an election campaign gives him the freedom to speak frankly.
“The judicial system shows difficulty in concluding cases, the Public Prosecutor’s Office seems to have generalized the use of wiretaps as evidence, but the breach of judicial secrecy or the disclosure of wiretaps can have various culprits. In a highly media-driven society, where strategies of the various parties in a case easily surpass the judicial space, assigning these leaks to just one participant without proof is risky,” he warned.
Therefore, according to the President of the Assembly of the Republic, “it is important to seriously ask: who benefits from the discrediting of justice?”
“Political debate often resorts to veiled accusations that only fuel suspicion. Insinuation and anonymous denunciation have become tools of political combat, both left and right, on billboards, or in subtle messages. In this context, it is not surprising that the perception of corruption among the Portuguese has reached such negative levels,” he observed.
According to the former Minister of Justice, “the idea that corruption is a general evil, particularly a political one, has become widespread.” He described this phenomenon as “serious because it confuses the innocent with the guilty, deters the best from public life, and trivializes corruption.”
He further warned, “Corruption exists, but we should not generalize, as its generalization dilutes responsibility and makes combatting it more difficult. It becomes even harder when there are those in the public space, apparently politically unbiased but with an ideological agenda, who choose to foster the perception of corruption for their own benefit, turning suspicion into a tool of convenience.”
At this point, the parliamentary president was more specific in his criticism.
“Corruption is not fought with perceptions, sensationalism, or the idea that everyone is guilty from the outset. It is not combated when politicians fuel the rhetoric of suspicion, exchange insinuations, or treat words like privatization or business as inherently suspicious,” he asserted.
Aguiar-Branco also argued that corruption is not fought “with a regime of incompatibilities that closes politics off to the best professionals in each field, that sees a good CV as a conflict of interest,” or that views “a return to private life as a revolving door.”
“This perpetual vision of suspicion undermines public trust and deters those who could best serve the country. Moreover, when necessary transparency turns, too often, into unnecessary voyeurism. This perception, this discourse, this ongoing suspicion is degrading our respect for politics,” he emphasized.
For José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, combatting corruption requires “good people” with “good practices” who serve as “good examples.”
“We need to bring the best into politics and justice,” he stated, citing João Cravinho and Joana Marques Vidal as examples.
“They were significant not only for the reform projects they left us, not only for the judicial and political work they undertook, but also—and above all—for their example,” he added.
