The President of the Republic rejected on Tuesday that there is a problem with the functioning of the State Council, arguing that it is necessary to distinguish information from speculation, and asked for respect for this political deliberative body.
“Let’s not create a problem that doesn’t actually exist,” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said at the Palácio de Belém in Lisbon, responding to the media during a joint press conference with Moldova’s President Maia Sandu. , who is on a state visit to Portugal.
In an interview with TVI/CNN Portugal on Monday evening, Prime Minister António Costa again criticized “selective escapes” from the Council of State and expressed his certainty that the President of the Republic will “ensure the strict application of the law” and “guarantee the normal functioning of its consultative body”.
Faced with these statements, the head of state countered that “one is speculation, the other is leakage of information”, emphasizing that in the case of the last meeting the minutes have not yet been approved, which is “valid as truth”. “.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa argued as much “It is premature to say whether what are called information leaks were information leaks or merely analytical speculations in the exercise of press freedom.”
“It is therefore obviously premature to make statements about the regular functioning of the Council of State and does not correspond to existing reality. Let us hold on to the reality that exists, even as a way of respecting the body, and not, let’s say, by the way, creating space or supposedly creating space to reduce the institutional weight of the body,” he added.
Source: DN
