Rui Rio, former president of the PSD and subscriber of the manifesto
The former president of the PSD who, at least since 2018, wants to implement a structural reform of Justice, is one of the main subscribers of the manifesto. One of the main flaws is the slowness of judicial decisions. “It’s not just in criminal justice, which is sometimes slow and other times not. But, for example, in administrative justice, where it easily takes 20 years for a sentence to become final”, he criticizes. He understands, therefore, that this is the moment to promote “a civic upheaval”, which can translate into “healthy and democratic pressure on sovereign bodies”, to reform Justice.
Apathy of political power
To JN, Rui Rio explained that this initiative was born from a group of personalities motivated by two main reasons. “It is the biggest problem that the regime has and, therefore, it makes sense that, at the time of the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April, this problem is addressed. Afterwards, we are all aware, and it is there in the manifesto, that there has been an apathy to take on serious justice reform”, he stated.
The former PSD leader, who is one of the critics of the Attorney General of the Republic’s stance in the Influencer and Madeira cases, says that “the level of effectiveness in the fight against corruption has a lot of spectacle, a lot of damage, but has little practical result then, in terms of trials and convictions.”
