PSD president Luís Montenegro said this Saturday that he will question the prime minister “face to face” about whether or not he has contacted Banco de Portugal governor Carlos Costa about the Isabel dos case Santos.
“What interests the Portuguese: 1) Doctor António Costa spoke or did not speak to the former governor of Banco de Portugal on this matter? Is it true or false that he contacted him?” Luís Montenegro began to question and continued on the second question, he said to put António Costa, “face to face, whatever actions he may take against Doctor Carlos Costa” and “whatever the procedural processing of these impulses may be” of the prime minister.
“Doctor António Costa, if it is true that you contacted him, was it or was it not to avoid the dismissal of engineer Isabel dos Santos as director or else from the shareholder section of BIC?” he said.
According to Luís Montenegro, who presided over the inauguration of the president of the Viseu district of the PSD, Carlos Silva, the Portuguese “need to know the truth, regardless of the actions that doctor António Costa wants to take against anyone”.
“Has the Prime Minister of Portugal intervened in this matter or not? Did he or did he not want to protect engineer Isabel dos Santos? That is what the Portuguese want to know and I want to challenge Doctor António Costa to respond. And if so, was it or not in the sense of preserving the position that engineer Isabel dos Santos had in that financial institution?”, he emphasized.
Luís Montenegro also highlighted this week the resignation of the deputy secretary of state, “who is not just a secretary of state”, as “he works in the office of the prime minister and has only one competence: to help the prime minister”.
“All these cases are due to many circumstances, but it is not the PSD. It is not worth coming to wave that the PSD and the opposition talk about business and petty matters. It has been created,” pointed out Montenegro who felt that “it’s not worth PS to victimize yourself”.
He listed “all the cases that take away the political authority from the government” and lamented that the country has “a government that has an absolute majority, that has all the conditions and all the tools” but that “cannot remain cohesive”.
“If it cannot remain minimally structured, even managed, if it fails to have any capacity or will to reform and transform, then it is its sole responsibility and this responsibility we have a duty to act on behalf of to demand the Portuguese people from the Portuguese people PS”, he defended.
PSD wants Costa to take a stand on constitutional reform
PSD leader Luís Montenegro also stated that he will “force” the prime minister to “take a stand” on citizens’ guarantees and other issues that are part of the revision of the constitution being debated in parliament .
“If Dr. António Costa thinks this will be solved in two or three meetings and with two or three issues, don’t be fooled, we’re not going to do this process with him. We’re going to force him to take a position” before the topics that up for discussion, Luís Montenegro supposed.
At stake, he continued, is a position “on the guarantees of the citizens, on the deepening of the autonomy of the autonomous regions, on the inclusion of the principle of territorial cohesion and the principle of intergenerational solidarity in the constitution”, said he. Luís Montenegro in Viseu, at the inauguration ceremony of the new president of the PSD district, Carlos Silva, and where he launched tasks for the party, criticizing and demanding the government for half an hour.
“Dr. António Costa will have to explain to the country why he does not want to establish a council for territorial cohesion between generations. Dr. António Costa will have to explain to the country if he rejects our proposal,” demanded.
What matters, he continued, is the proposal of the PSD so that “in the next parliamentary elections, and from now on, the ordinary legislature, in determining the terms of the parliamentary elections, can have constituencies that have and assume the principle of proportionality, given demographic density, but also the principle of representativeness” of the territories.
Source: DN
