The president of the republic said on Tuesday that he was refusing requests from TAP officials to be received, as well as all types of contacts, so as not to interfere in any way with the ongoing parliamentary inquiry process in parliament.
Responding to journalists, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in the former royal arena next to the Palace of Belém in Lisbon, declined to comment on matters dealt with by the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the political patronage of TAP Management, including the operation of information services.
The head of state said this is “one of the sensitive matters being considered in an ongoing parliamentary committee of inquiry” and “is one in which parliament has fundamental powers of scrutiny and oversight”.
“Anything the President of the Republic could say would be noise, and I have avoided that. In this case, I have mostly avoided this noise, for example, not receiving company officials who asked to be received by me, or not accepting contacts of any kind that were a way to interfere, directly or indirectly, in a process taking place in parliament,” he added.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stressed that the parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the political custody of TAP management “is a process that is in parliament, it belongs to parliament”.
“Parliament should lead it in its tender ways. And we follow, we sovereign bodies, we Portuguese, follow closely what is happening, but sovereign bodies other than parliament should not interfere in the life of parliament,” defended he.
When asked if he will follow the hearings of the Commission of Inquiry on TAP, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied that “the President of the Republic has information about everything and therefore follows everything that happens in Portuguese political life”.
In these statements to the media, the head of state was asked about more than ten topics, from diplomas awaiting his decision to the Chega demonstration presented as a “siege of PS headquarters”, on which he declined to comment.
The president of the republic spoke, among other things, about the National Health Service (SNS), which he said was in a “transitional phase”, and about the negotiations between the government and teachers’ unions, reiterating the call for an agreement that ensures the tests of evaluation.
Regarding the European tour of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said he received “a formal invitation” to go to Kiev last week from the new Ukrainian ambassador and said he has already “thought out an idea for the date of that visit, which is still being finalized.
The head of state did not say when that would be, but only assured that his trip to Kiev would be “certainly before the end of the year, no doubt”.
Source: DN
