Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who was speaking to the press in the Italian city of Florence on the sidelines of a conference on the future of the European Union, was commenting on the results of a poll by the Catholic University for Antena 1, RTP and the newspaper Público, released today, according to which more than 70 percent of respondents have a negative opinion about the state of Justice in Portugal.

Recalling that he has made several speeches and interventions on this matter and defending that "justice reform is a fundamental issue", the Head of State considered that "the Portuguese are very sensitive in particular to one aspect, which is the time of Justice".

"The time of justice cannot be the time of the media. It can't. But it can't be so slow, so slow, so slow that people die before seeing justice done or it loses its justice for not being timely justice. Therefore, in this sense, it is clear that I understand this type of opinion, which is already very old", he said, adding that "over the decades", polls show that the Portuguese have "the notion that excessive time takes justice away from Justice".

Giving "a small example" of "a problem that has been dragging on for years", Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke of the case of the judicial officers, who did not see their statute revised at the same time as the statute of judges and magistrates of the Public Ministry was revised, which, according to judges with whom the President spoke, "may have meant a delay of a year and a half in judicial decisions, due to problems of unrecognized status, union struggles, strikes", among others.

Asked whether the case of the investigation that led to the resignation of former Prime Minister António Costa could not have contributed to the notion in Portugal that Justice is not working properly, the President of the Republic said that he had never spoken out on this specific matter nor would he do so, and that he was only making "a generic comment, because people have the notion, in their lives, that Justice ends up appearing very, very late".

When asked if the President of the Republic could not do anything, Marcelo replied that he had been trying for years to make all parties aware of the need to address the problem.

"As soon as I entered, in 2016, I proposed a pact between the judicial operators, between the protagonists of Justice. They made the pact and presented the pact to the politicians. Only a small part was applied. Then, I continued to insist, now turning more to the political parties, and now specifically to the political parties at this stage", he said, recalling that, at the inauguration of the current Government, "I said that it is a fundamental and urgent priority that the Government and the Parliament, in the broadest possible consensus, face what needs to be changed in Portuguese Justice".

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