“My reading is very simple, it is that no one is prejudiced in his right to express his opinion. The opinion that each of us expresses makes us responsible,” Augusto Santos Silva told journalists on a visit to London.
Santos Silva stressed that “accountability is political by nature, everyone is responsible for what he says”.
The Speaker of Parliament insisted that “freedom of expression and criticism in Portugal is total” and that “no one is immune or free from critical assessments that may be made of his work”.
“Critical reviews, some will be more honest, some will be more unfair. They hold those who issue them accountable,” he said.
Santos Silva spoke to journalists after being questioned about the criticism of the Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, of the work of the parliamentary inquiry commission TAP.
For the president of AR, “Parliament has done its job with the fullness of its responsibilities, both in the legislative function and in the supervisory function, as seen in the Commission of Inquiry”.
In an interview with TSF and Jornal de Notícias released on Sunday, the minister believed there were delegates who acted as “prosecutors of 1980s American B-series cinema” in the committee of inquiry into TAP.
After the interview, in statements to Lusa, the chairman of the TAP Commission of Inquiry and deputy of the Socialist Party, António Lacerda Sales, believed that the minister’s statements represented a “disrespect” and a “deeply unfair characterization” of the deputies goods. work and asked him to withdraw.
The criticism was condemned by opposition parties, but Adão e Silva refused to back down.
The preliminary report, released on July 5, concluded that “there are no materially relevant situations that indicate a practice of interference in the day-to-day management of the company by the trustee”.
The discussion and vote on the report in the parliamentary committee of inquiry is scheduled for Thursday and the plenary appreciation for 19 July.
Santos Silva is in London on an official visit at the invitation of his counterpart, Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons. During the visit you will have institutional meetings and contacts with the Portuguese community.
The President of the General Assembly of the Republic traveled together with deputies Sérgio Sousa Pinto (PS and President of the Portugal-UK Parliamentary Friendship Group), Joaquim Miranda Sarmento (PSD Group President), João Dias (PCP) and Isabel Pires (BE) .
Source: DN
