Culture Minister Pedro Adão e Silva today reiterated criticism of the way the work of the TAP Commission of Inquiry took place and refused to “suspend the critical spirit” about the functioning of the Assembly of the Republic.
“Insulting the Assembly? I don’t see why. The government is responding to the Assembly, but nowhere is it written that ministers must suspend their critical spirit towards the functioning of parliament,” said the minister.
Adão e Silva spoke to journalists in Vila Viçosa, Évora district, about the controversy surrounding the interview he gave to TSF and Jornal de Notícias in which he opined that there were delegates acting as “prosecutors of 1980s American B-series cinema” in the Commission of Inquiry into TAP.
After the interview, the chairman of the TAP Commission of Inquiry, António Lacerda Sales, believed that the minister’s statements were a “disrespect” and a “deeply unfair characterization” of deputies’ work, and asked him to intervene Pull.
Request rejected by the Minister of Culture. “Of course not. I can elaborate more on the reading I’m doing on how this CPI worked, because I think it’s an example and a symptom of a very negative evolution I’m seeing in the relationship between political institutions and the media.” justifies.
“Nowhere is it written that ministers are not allowed to criticize the functioning of other institutions,” the minister repeated.
Regarding the CPI chairman’s response, he said he “neither expected nor ceased to expect”. I have a very democratic spirit. In the same way that I hope you will accept my critical mind, my reflections and my concern that I face some backwardness in public and political life in this relationship between the functioning of democratic institutions and their relationship to the news and communication cycle, I hope for the same openness and ability to listen to criticism,” he reflected.
Pedro Adão e Silva that the criticism he made reflects “a reflection that needs to be made” and that “it is shared by many Portuguese about some moments and some behaviors in the CPI”
“I find it a bit odd that no one cares about cell phone seizures at the CPI or questions about who you text with or questions late into the night. None of this contributes to proper functioning of democratic institutions. What I said it was exactly like that,” emphasized the culture minister.
Source: DN
