MPs with homes outside Lisbon receive nearly double their salary in subsidies and allowances.
A daily attendance allowance of €69.19 for MPs outside Lisbon who quality if they are in parliament Tuesday to Thursday, a fixed monthly allowance of €376.32 to "contact the electorate" on Mondays, without needing to do so, two round trips per week to their declared home at €0.36 per kilometre are just some of the extra payments that boost MPs’ salaries.
One MP in Bragança receives more than €2,700 per month in a basket of extra payments.
"There is no reason why the Assembly of the Republic does not have a system of compensation of expenses identical to that of any company: the right to a salary and to compensation for being away from home," said Paulo Morais, a former presidential candidate and leader of Frente Cívica.
Following revelations that MPs in the Azores and Madeira have been claiming travel costs while also receiving a travel allowance, the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, defended them, saying they "have not violated any law or any ethical principle, neither in this nor in any legislature," in relation to travel expenses.
The Secretary-General of the Assembly of the Republic, Albino de Azevedo Soares, already has asked the Transparency Committee to analyse travel allowances for MPs in the island regions. The committee may decide that Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues' firm support for MPs is misplaced.
So far, one island MP has resigned in shame – the Left Bloc’s Paulino Ascenção.
