The position was expressed to Lusa by the president of SMMP, Paulo Lona, who believes that the Attorney General of the Republic Lucília Gago "can and should be held accountable in the Assembly of the Republic (AR) for the general activity of the MP, for the difficulties, the lack of resources or for the delay", but no longer for facts of specific processes, such as, for example, the Influencer case or the Madeira case.

If the PGR is called to parliament to speak about specific cases, this would be a "violation of the separation of powers", warned Paulo Lona, noting that the way in which some parliamentary groups defended Lucília Gago's presence in the AR leads to the assumption that it would be to speak above all about the Influencer investigation involving former prime minister António Costa.

According to the president of SMMP, there is a "very delicate balance" when the PGR is called and subjected to giving explanations in parliament, especially since there may be the temptation for deputies to ask questions about "specific facts" under investigation.

Along these lines, Paulo Lona believes that it does not make sense for the PGR to go to parliament and then "not be able to talk about specific facts" of media processes that seem to be in the sights of the deputies.

The president of SMMP acknowledged, however, that he has long considered that the Attorney General's Office "should improve communication", even to "show that there is not only the negative side", but many areas of positive intervention of this magistracy that gained autonomy and independence with the 25th of April.

The need for the Attorney's Office to improve its communication was, in fact, one of the themes of Paulo Lona's speech at the last SMMP congress, and today he added to Lusa that the profile of the next PGR who will succeed Lucília Gago, in October, will have to be someone who has the ability to communicate.

In the meantime, BE, PCP, Livre and PAN today defended the hearing of the PGR in parliament on the actions of the MP, insisting on the need for explanations, a hypothesis that Chega considered inadequate.

These positions were taken after the president of parliament, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, considered today, in an interview with Antena 1, que Lucília Gago should provide explanations in the AR about the processes that caused political crises.

At issue are investigations by the MP such as those that led to the fall of the previous executive, led by António Costa, and the government of Madeira, headed by Miguel Albuquerque, causing early elections in both cases.

The president of Chega, André Ventura, said he had heard "with some astonishment and concern the words" of the president of parliament, considering that the MP should provide explanations and can communicate "more effectively", but not through a visit to the AR.

Fabian Figueiredo (BE) considered that Lucília Gago owes explanations to the country and praised Aguiar-Branco for having joined this appeal, stressing that "in 50 years of democracy we had never witnessed a similar episode".

The PCP said it expects Lucília Gago to make herself available to provide clarifications in parliament on the actions of the MP and clarified that the communists will not put forward any request but will also not make it unfeasible.

For Livre, deputy Jorge Pinto insisted that the PGR owes explanations "to the deputies but above all to the country" and stated that his party will propose that the issue be discussed at a conference of leaders in order to better understand the "scope of this call".

Leia Também: "Não considero que ida ao Parlamento da PGR faça qualquer sentido" (Portuguese version)