The Economy Minister, António Costa Silva, was reminded once again yesterday that the Prime Minister (PM) leads the government and that it makes no sense for him to express his own opinion in public. And the warning came from within the Ministry of Economic Affairs itself. Rita Marques, Secretary of State for Tourism, said in an interview with Lusa that “these matters are discussed collectively, at their own headquarters, in the Council of Ministers”. In other words, “The prime minister must have the last word, in fact, he has the first, the last, always. And that’s why we will be here to work according to the guidelines given to us by the prime minister.”
What matters is the fact that about a week ago, in an interview with TSF/Jornal de Notícias, the minister defended a “transversal reduction” of the IRC. “Today, given the crisis we have, I think it would be extremely beneficial to have this transversal reduction and see from there what impact it could have in the future,” the minister said.
“Two of the three state secretaries of the Ministry of Economy have come forward to say the opposite of what the minister said. This makes me very confused.”
Since then, it has been banned in various shapes and forms. Rita Marques reminded him yesterday that the last word belongs, but another of his Secretary of State, João Neves, Secretary of State for Economy, had already criticized him for the idea of lowering the IRC: “Saying we are going to trade in IRC to problem at very short notice is a mistake.”
The rejection of the minister by his own secretaries of state – both of whom Costa Silva inherited from his predecessor, Pedro Siza Vieira – astonished some in the PS.
“It does not seem appropriate at this stage of negotiation with the social partners to prejudge this or that position on any specific issue.”
Former minister Alexandra Leitão, now deputy, expressed this strangeness this weekend in the weekly debate program with José Pacheco Pereira and António Lobo Xavier, “Principle of uncertainty”, on TVI.
“Two of the three state secretaries of the Ministry of Economy have come forward to say the opposite of what the minister said, this makes me very confused,” he said, even speaking of “bewilderment”. This – he added – “is not something well tolerated” (secretaries of state denying their ministers). It is therefore something “downright strange”, that is, it does not fall within what is “normal”, especially on the eve of the presentation of the state budget, namely that there are “different opinions depending on the sector that each minister holds supervision”.
Medina opened the door
The first ruler to remove the carpet from under the Minister of Economy was the Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina. Medina spoke on the sidelines of an audit conference last week about the negotiations taking place during the Social Dialogue. “It does not seem appropriate at this stage of negotiation with the social partners to prejudge this or that position on this or that particular issue,” he said – but not without first recalling that “the government has a voice “. that is “collectively defined” and that “the voice that is the prime minister”.
Source: DN
