Less than 24 hours after taking office, the new Government has already taken two decisions: changing the logo that represents the Portuguese Republic and mandating the Minister of Justice to begin a dialogue process with a view to adopting a package of measures to combat corruption .
“We have already made decisions. The first was to change the logo that represents the Portuguese Republic, replacing essential symbols of our identity, history and culture. The logo once again has an armillary sphere with corners, a shield and castles, an identity in which the Portuguese people see themselves. Second measure: Council of Ministers decided to mandate the Minister of Justice to initiate a dialogue process with all parties with parliamentary seats and civil society to adopt a package of measures that is ambitious, effective and essential to combat corruption”, stated the Minister of the Presidency , António Leitão Amaro, after the Council of Ministers meeting.
Asked whether the fight against corruption is related to obtaining Chega’s support, the minister said that this Government is not interested in “political games”.
“We started working on a government of change for the Portuguese: a government of humility and dialogue, but which aims to bring about structural change in the country. Today we started preparing the Government program. We want to present it to the AR by April 10th, even before the constitutional deadlines”, said the government official.
Leitão Amaro highlighted that “dialogue must be carried out, with everyone”, and stressed that “the Portuguese people chose a mandate for change” and that “the party with the most votes has a different responsibility”, but recalled that the people “voted and put several parties in parliament.”
The minister highlighted his ambition to “govern by fulfilling his commitments” and sees no problem with housing not having an exclusive ministry. “There is a Ministry of Housing. Infrastructure and Housing. There was a minister exclusively with this portfolio and the crisis was not resolved, it worsened. We propose to resolve this crisis”, he stressed.
Leitão Amaro also took a dig at the previous government, recalling the famous powerpoints and revealing that the move of several ministries to the Caixa Geral de Depósitos building was not prepared.
