Lisbon, Feb. 11, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's fall in the Corruption Perception Index 2024 "reflects the failure" of the fight against corruption, "especially political corruption", and that international observers "are not swayed by mere rhetoric" of announced measures, said the Frente Cívica on Tuesday.
In an analysis of Portugal's results in the index released today by Transparency International, the vice-president of the Civic Front association, João Paulo Batalha, told Lusa that the country's "atypical result", which in one year fell four points in the ranking and nine places in the table to its worst ever ranking (43rd place) "reflects the failure in the fight against corruption, based on legislative reforms, one on top of the other without concrete application".
The problem arises above all in terms of political corruption, said João Paulo Batalha, who emphasised that in the 2023 index, although it was released after the fall of António Costa's government in the wake of "Operation Influencer", the ranking did not yet reflect this legal case, which directly affected the prime minister's office.
Cases like "Operation Influencer" or the "Tutti-Frutti" case reveal a capture of politicians and political influence by private interests, said the vice-president of Frente Cívica, in a country where there is a "repeated perception that you need to know politicians to move projects and businesses forward".
"Corruption is defined as the phenomenon of civil servants and public offices, but the biggest problem is political corruption," he emphasised.
For João Paulo Batalha, this year's index "demonstrates more cruelly and vividly that international observers are not convinced by mere rhetoric" of announced measures without visible practical results. International reports repeatedly demonstrate the country's delay in implementing recommendations.
He said the impact of cases like "Operation Influencer" on this index is explained by their large scale and the high-level government figures affected.
"When there are large-scale cases involving the state at the highest level, it's natural that it causes uncertainty and insecurity, which immediately have repercussions. But the index is designed to have some distance," explained João Paulo Batalha, adding that what is reflected in the index is a multiplicity of external and independent sources that assess the quality of democracies and not “an opinion poll of residents in the country”, making the results more immune to unsubstantiated data.
The quality of democracies and the association of greater corruption with countries where the rule of law fails is another issue raised by the Corruption Perception Index 2024, said the vice-president of Frente Cívica, who emphasised that Portugal was in the group of flawed democracies and that the situation in Europe was deteriorating, adding that, in cases such as Hungary, the European Union, for example, "has not been assertive enough in punishing states with bad practices".
Portugal fell nine places in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2024. It obtained its worst result ever. This was "particularly driven by the perception of abuse of public office for private gain" in cases such as Operation Influencer.
The Transparency International index, published since 2012 and in which Portugal has been in "continuous decline since 2015", places Portugal in 43rd position out of 180 countries evaluated, nine places below the 34th position of 2023, with 57 points on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt states) to 100 (high integrity of states in the fight against corruption).
IMA/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
