Luís Montenegro’s response by devaluing last week’s judicial searches case against Rui Rio – in a criminal investigation allegedly over the use of funding to the parliamentary group used to fund party activities – raised yet another problem between the party leadership and its seat in the Assembly of the Republic (where Rio still has many supporters).
On Monday, after an audience with the president of the republic, Montenegro declined to comment on the matter, describing it as a “distraction”. “We are not consistent with deducing what brought us here today,” he said, stating that it was a priority to talk about “themes that are important to people’s lives” – these are the SNS, education , housing, the economy and the “roll of steel” mode.” as most PS have worked.
“This is a decision to be made by the national leadership of the PSD, the Standing Committee will meet tomorrow morning [hoje de manhã] and will make a decision on this.”
Several deputies near Rio had called for an extraordinary meeting of the court to discuss the case and this meeting took place on Tuesday. Deputies close to Rio, such as André Coelho Lima, Paulo Mota Pinto or Adão Silva, criticized the devaluation that the leadership of Montenegro made in their opinion, arguing that the party should request to be present in the Assembly of the Republic of the Attorney General of the Republic, Lucília Gago, for her to explain. Paulo Mota Pinto also defended that at today’s leadership conference, the PSD should support the public request for explanations made to the prosecution by the President of the Assembly of the Republic.
According to Lusa, parliamentary leader Joaquim Miranda Sarmento reacted almost individually, rejecting that the PSD had devalued the issue. a series of 20 house searches, including at the home of former PSD president Rui Rio and at the party’s national headquarters, in an investigation conducted by the Lisbon Regional Department of Investigations and Penalties (DIAP), on suspicion of embezzlement and abuse of power. After the party complained by letter to the Prosecutor General of the Republic on Thursday about the “major disproportionality” between the acts performed and the subject of the investigation, the argument was repeated the following Saturday by President Luís Montenegro.
Faced with pressure from deputies to summon the PGR to parliament, Miranda Sarmento understood that the best response would be to “kick” the matter to the party’s national leadership, that is, to Montenegro.
“This is a decision to be made by the national leadership of the PSD, the Standing Committee meets [esta quarta-feira] tomorrow morning and will make a decision on this,” he replied, saying that he would keep his personal position for that meeting of the hard core of the leadership, in which he sits. As for next Tuesday’s group parliamentary assembly meeting, he said that it was “very useful” because “it enabled Members to express their views on a very serious situation, namely that the judiciary had crossed a line by conducting searches beyond what was the judicial mandate and that is a set of sensitive political information about the PSD”.
Today Luís Montenegro will participate in the traditional dinner at the end of the legislative session with the parliamentary group.
Source: DN
