In statements to journalists on the sidelines of the conference "Prevention of Corruption in Portugal: Analysis and Perspectives", organized by the Bar Association (AO) and the National Anti-Corruption Mechanism (MENAC), Fernanda de Almeida Pinheiro considered that the discourse of political parties against corruption "always goes down very well" in the face of citizens' perception of a supposed high prevalence of this crime in the country.

"When we say that we are going to fight the corrupt... corruption is fought with prevention, with education and with effectiveness in the means of punishment. This is what we have to reinforce, because the laws already exist. We don't need to reinvent the wheel, which is something we like to do a lot in Portugal," she said.

For the president of the Bar Association, "the generic affirmation" that Portugal is a country of corrupt people "does not correspond in the least to reality".

Admitting that there are, "naturally, problems of corruption" in Portugal, Fernanda de Almeida Pinheiro stressed that many are related to "the lack of education of the population in these matters".

She also blamed the media for the way they deal with the issue, rejecting that there is "absolute impunity" or a "very high rate of corruption" in the country.

"Much has been seen and implemented and we have a good law and good preventive measures. We naturally have to improve through the means that are necessary to prevent and implement even more in terms of investigation, etc. For this we need technical and human resources," she noted, advocating the application of artificial intelligence tools in the investigation.

Fernanda de Almeida Pinheiro did not fail, however, to point out that there is still "a lot of work to be done" and considered that corruption issues should be addressed in schools, namely at the level of civic and citizenship education: "Prevention and education are fundamental".

Regarding a new government package against corruption, in which the various judicial stakeholders are being heard, Fernanda de Almeida Pinheiro said she "welcomes" the initiative, although she reiterated the need for a concrete translation into more resources for the sector.

"I am not skeptical, I just want to see the means implemented, because identifying the problems is very easy and we all know that we can go further and do more and better. However, this cannot be achieved without resources," she said, listing among the main difficulties the lack of judicial staff and technological resources for investigation.

As for the presentation last week of a manifesto signed by 50 personalities in defense of a "justice reform", the president of the Bar Association admitted to having "a lot of distrust" about the document.

"There are mechanisms to assess whether there were excesses in certain processes and, in addition, there are signatories who were in the legislative power," she said.

Leia Também: Bastonária dos advogados quer "caderno de encargos conjunto" para justiça (Portuguese version)