"There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about," according to Oscar Wilde.
With this in mind, Bruno Paixão at the University of Coimbra decided his Phd should be based on an analysis of media coverage of Portugal's politicians who have been involved in a scandal involving the misuse of power, using a position for financial gain and those involving sexual misdeeds.
In Portugal’s 40 years of democracy, the former Socialist prime minister José Sócrates has been the most targeted politician, concludes Paixão whose thesis "The media coverage of political scandal in Portugal’s democratic period," analysed the period between 25 April 1974 and 25 April 2014.
Paixão identified 99 cases of political scandal involving 126 politicians. The results were colelcted from 4,739 news items in Expresso, O Jornal, O Independente and Sol.
"José Socrates wins," said Paixão, stressing that with the date range used he did not cover the Tecnoforma case that involved Pedro Passos Coelho, Operation Marquês involving Sócrates, or the Golden Visa scandal involving the minister Miguel Macedo who resigned as a result.
Sócrates is followed by Armando Vara (PS), Isaltino Morais (PSD), Leonor Beleza (PSD), Carlos Melancia (PS), Paulo Portas (CDS), Paulo Pedroso (PS), Costa Freire (PSD), Fátima Felgueiras (PS) and the suspected murderer Duarte Lima (PSD).
In terms of the number of cases, Sócrates again was the winner, with nine cases, followed by Armando Vara and Mário Lino, with five cases each, Paulo Portas, Duarte Lima, Paulo Penedos and Nobre Guedes with four each, and Miguel Relvas, Rui Pedro Soares Abel Pinheiro, Cavaco Silva and Mario Soares with three a piece.
The researcher noted that in an online survey three weeks after Sócrates' arrest, to which 1,436 people responded, only 4% of respondents said they think the former PM would be found to be innocent.
According to Paixão, political scandal as a category has increased in each decade covered. Between 2004 and 2014 political scandals were the biggest category at 57.9%.
In the 99 scandals identified, 67 are related to power, 21 related to financial fiddling such as tax evasion and failing to declare private financial interests, and 10 involving sexual conduct such as in the Casa Pia case.
But the 'old silver fox' is the winner and coverage of his forthcoming trial, if Sócrates is ever charged with anything, may provide him with an unassailable lead for the 2014 - 2024 period.
