The Parliamentary Committee on Transparency and Membership Status today adjourned, after a long deliberation, a vote on the opinion of BE MP Mariana Mortagua, drawn up following a request for clarification from the Constitutional Court.
In June, Socialist Alexandra Leitao, chairwoman of the Committee on Transparency and the Statute of Deputies, reported that the Constitutional Court (CC) asked the Assembly of the Republic to clarify the declarative obligations of the BC deputy, also confirming that she had also filed a request for clarification with the prosecutor’s office regarding the same deputy.
In April, the State Ministry confirmed that it had opened an investigation following a complaint about MP Mariana Mortagua’s cooperation with the media while she was on an exclusive basis in the Assembly of the Republic.
At today’s meeting, which took place behind closed doors and lasted more than three hours, the opinion of the SDP MP Marcia Passos was proposed (which was not made public).
At the end of the meeting, Marcia Passos only said that the vote on the opinion “was put on hold”, refusing to answer further questions or say if she was ready to amend the document.
According to CNN and the online newspaper The Observador, the SDP MP’s draft opinion acknowledged that the BE MP may have to pay retroactively to Parliament for the period she commented on the SIC between 2015 and 2019 while she was in exclusive right.
However, sources from several benches told Lusa that the PSD was marginalized in its interpretation of the ability to apply the provision retroactively, as prior to 2020 the Parliament considered the implementation of the mandate to be exclusively compatible with television commentary.
This is already the second opinion of this committee on the BE MP, after it approved an opinion on 24 March in which it concluded that Mariana Mortagua’s collaboration with the Jornal de Notícias as a columnist did not violate the regime of exclusivity.
Regarding Mariana Mortagua’s collaboration “as a commentator on the Linhas Vermelhas program at SIC Notícias between October 2021 and February 2022”, the Transparency and Statute of Deputies Commission “assessed, at her request, the situation”.
“The register of interests has been updated and corrected in accordance with the instructions of the Commission, and the amounts associated with the monthly allowance for hospitality arising from the regime of exclusivity have been replaced by the Dear Member for the aforementioned months, since it has already been declared to the commission, the matter is closed,” reads the Parliament’s answer to Lusa’s question.
In February 2020, the working group concluded that “paid collaboration with the print press is considered to be the receipt of income from copyright and, therefore, in accordance with the established doctrine in this matter, is not incompatible with the exercise of an exclusive mandate.”
On the other hand, “paid collaboration with the media of a different nature (for example, regular participation in television commentaries or debate programs) cannot lead to the perception of copyright and is therefore incompatible with the exercise of an exclusive right (while being compatible, however, with the exercise of the mandate in general terms),” the same document continues.
Mariana Mortagua exercises her mandate on an exclusive basis, which is one of the flags of the party. Therefore, she receives an allowance of 10% of the deputy’s regular salary.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
