This Wednesday, the PS halted the Left Bloc’s request to hear European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde in the Republic’s plenary, but admitted to considering her presence in the committee.
This position of the PS bench was conveyed by the spokeswoman of the conference of parliamentary leaders, Socialist deputy Maria da Luz Rosinha, after being asked if there was consensus on the planning of the Left Bloc proposal in the sense that Christine Lagarde was heard in plenary shortly.
The leader of the Left Bloc, Mariana Mortágua, condemned the positions defended by Christine Lagarde last week at a central bank forum in Sintra, calling for the continuation of the ECB’s policy of raising interest rates.
Mariana Mortágua believed that these views from the ECB president “deserve the strongest rejection”, because Lagarde “disrespected the Portuguese” and that she should appear before parliament.
According to the Leaders’ Conference spokeswoman, while this issue was raised at the Leaders’ Conference meeting, “no decision has been made yet”.
“It has not been voted on. As a rule, we do not hold votes at leaders’ conferences. We try to analyze the issues and build consensus around them. On this issue, some were positive, but others were not,” he referred, without first to specify who opposed the request of the Left Bloc.
Maria da Luz Rosinha then claimed that, within the scope of the practices of the Assembly of the Republic, “there are figures who are called to the committee and not to the plenary”.
“It was closed [a presidente do BCE] it will not come to plenary, but nothing has been finalized regarding coming to committee. PS’s position is that it made no sense [Christine Lagarde] be present in plenary. The case is not closed and will be dealt with at a later date,” he added.
With regard to other matters discussed at this Wednesday’s conference of leaders, Maria da Luz Rosinha pointed out that the joint debate on two government proposals on professional orders was scheduled for the next 19th.
“We will then hold two European debates and finally, before the votes, the final report of the parliamentary inquiry committee TAP will go to the plenary, with the intervention of the chairman of the committee [Lacerda Sales, do PS] and the deputy rapporteur [Ana Paula Bernardo, do PS]”, he said.
With regard to the conclusions of the Commission of Inquiry on TAP, the parties have until July 10 to submit proposals to amend the preliminary version presented this Wednesday by Socialist Deputy Ana Paula Bernardo.
The discussion and vote on the report in the parliamentary committee of inquiry is scheduled for July 13 and its evaluation in plenary for July 19.
Also according to Maria da Luz Rosinha, there will be another leadership conference meeting on the morning of the next 19th to “finalize post-holiday issues” before the summer.
“On the 20th, we will then have the debate on the state of the nation,” he added.
Source: DN
