This Tuesday was the first day of the rest of Pedro Nuno Santos’ life as a politician. Two weeks before the end of the legislative session, the former Minister of Infrastructure and Housing took over as deputy (for which he was elected head of the PS list in Aveiro). As Parliament is about to close for the summer holidays, no committee will be allocated to you for the time being. “There is no rush,” a bank official told DN.
Pedro Nuno arrived on the floor of the parliamentary plenary in the early afternoon, shortly after 2 p.m., accompanied by the four deputies friends and comrades of the PS with whom he had lunched in the Il Matriciano, an Italian restaurant opposite the São Bento Palace. They were Francisco César, Tiago Barbosa Ribeiro, Hugo Oliveira and João Paulo Rebelo. He was joined in the elevator by Socialist deputy Alexandra Leitão, also a former Minister (of Modernization of the State and Public Administration, in the second Costa government, between 2019 and 2022) and took on “Pedro Nunista”.
Afterwards, he confronted in the corridors with pre-planned phrases the enormous media apparatus that awaited him – after all, it is not every day that someone who has already assumed the leadership ambitions of the PS takes the place of deputy.
“We have a very well-delivered government. The PS and the government have a lot of work ahead of them. I am a deputy who supports the government.”
He assured journalists that he is not a “candidate for anything”, but insisted on adding that this is what is happening “right now”. “At the moment I am not a candidate for anything” – this was the full sentence.
When asked if he will be a critical voice towards António Costa’s leadership, he replied with a question (“but why?”). And then he added: “We have a very well-delivered government. The PS and the government have a lot of work ahead of them. I am a deputy who supports the government.” He then explained why he will no longer represent the PS in any committee: “The PS group will make adjustments [nos deputados] committees at the beginning of the legislature. But I can’t be the one to give the information. I won’t get an idea until the start of the next legislature.”
At around 2:15 p.m., he entered the hemicycle through the door normally reserved for PSD delegates. He jumped from place to place to greet several comrades on the bench, namely another former minister, Marta Temido, now seen as the PS’ likely next candidate for the Lisbon city council (but there are also those who one day as a possible candidate, in the leadership of the PS).
At one point he moved to the front seats on the PS bench and sat next to group leader Eurico Brilhante Dias, both exchanged a few words. He then returned to the last row, sitting between deputies chosen by his circle: Hugo Oliveira – who took the opportunity to take a “selfie” with him -, Joana Sá Pereira and Cláudia Santos. The parliamentary afternoon was then closed with a huge agenda (see news opposite) and without the impact of the return of Pedro Nuno Santos being obscured by revelations about the draft final report of the parliamentary inquiry committee at TAP that has to be prepared by PS in recent days Representative Ana Paula Bernardo. The document should have been distributed to parliamentary groups this Tuesday, but it was not confirmed until 11:30 pm that this had happened. The distribution was in the hands of the chairman of the committee, another socialist, António Lacerda Sales.
rest for seven months
Pedro Nuno resigned from the government on December 28 last year, taking political responsibility for the controversial process that led TAP to pay half a million euros in damages to an administrator, Alexandra Reis, at a time of strong disagreement in Company. On January 5, he left the government, when he was replaced (his portfolio was divided in two: infrastructure remained with João Galamba and housing with Marina Gonçalves). At the same time he announced that he would leave the national leadership of the PS. And he’s since faded from the spotlight, announcing that he needed a vacation. He even said afterwards that he had to do “some kind of mourning”.
In recent weeks he has resurfaced, called upon by parliamentary committees to explain TAP.
About a month ago, on June 6, he was in the Economic Committee, where he spoke mainly about the company’s re-privatization process carried out by the government of Pedro Passos Coelho in its final phase (2015) and the renationalization that was later carried out by the first government of Antonio Costa (2015-2019). He was due to return to São Bento on June 15, summoned by TAP’s parliamentary inquiry committee. There he made it clear that he considered his responsibilities fully taken over from the moment he resigned from the government: “I was doing my job in good faith. It was not going well. And I was assuming my responsibilities by resigning. ourselves.”
Source: DN
