Liberal Initiative (IL) chairman João Cotrim de Figueiredo accused the prime minister on Friday of not being a statesman and of giving “nonsense advice” on charges against alleged Chinese informal police stations.
“It does not reassure me at all to live in a country where the prime minister has no idea of such a serious case that it is widely known in every way,” João Cotrim de Figueiredo said in Nazaré today, referring to the alleged existence of informal Chinese police stations, which he denounced on Thursday as existing in Portugal.
“And he still has the audacity to (…) file a complaint there with the prosecutor general’s office,” said the president of IL who, referring to António Costa, added: “this is not a statesman , this is not a first minister who actually deals with human rights and the rights of residents of Portugal, whether Portuguese or not”.
In the presence of dozens of young people participating on this day in the 1st edition of Just X’IL – National Youth Meeting, which will take place in Nazaré until Sunday, the party leader recalled the denunciation made in parliament on Thursday, when he said have learned through a report from a non-governmental organization (NGO) for the defense of human rights that there will be three police stations and informal Chinese police stations in Portugal, in Lisbon, Porto and Madeira.
“There are indications that these squadrons are connected to the network of the so-called united front of the Chinese Communist Party,” he said, asking António Costa if he was aware of the matter.
The Prime Minister answered no and suggested that the Liberal deputy inform the Attorney General’s office.
When asked by journalists, in the margins of the meeting, whether he had already followed António Costa’s suggestion, the president of IL said that “the prime minister is giving advice that makes no sense”. reaffirming “the deep conviction of” [o assunto] the intelligence services already knew and that the head of government was “the one who was misinformed”.
Considering that it fulfilled its “duty of resistance” and made the matter public”, the attorney general’s office “can open an investigation, if it wishes,” stressed Cotrim de Figueiredo, urging the prime minister “not to resort to nonsense advice”.
Source: DN
