This Wednesday, the PS president rejected the prime minister’s pressure on the Bank of Portugal, defended that it was António Costa who “liberated” BPI from Isabel dos Santos and blamed the Passos Coelho executive for the Banif process .
These views were conveyed by Carlos César through a message he published this morning on his account on the social network Facebook, in response to allegations that António Costa was targeted by former Governor of Banco de Portugal (BdP) Carlos Costa – accusations he made on Tuesday repeated.
In the text, the former party leader of the PS and current member of the Council of State finds that the former governor of the Banco de Portugal was “disrespectful” and expressed the idea that “there is too much resentment and too little sense of state “. because he left office “without much praise”.
As for the controversy surrounding the presence in 2016 of Isabel dos Santos, daughter of the former president of Angola, in the capital of banking institutions in Portugal such as BPI and BIC, Carlos César understands that one understands the care that must be taken in view of the definition of prioritiesto prevent precipitation.
Now, according to the chairman of the PS, the Prime Minister’s suggestion of such concern, “if it happened it would of course never be regarded as an infringement or unlawful pressure, but at most as the communication of a government position on the issues at stake”🇧🇷
In addition, the reasons for these precautions have now been publicly acknowledged and put into context by politically unsuspected and credited advisers and analysts, of whom I highlight Lobo Xavier and Nogueira Leite. What also needs to be said is that, contrary to what they insinuate or explicitly name the protagonists of the ongoing political agenda of the opposition, the independence of an institution such as the Banco de Portugal is not guaranteed, let alone consolidated by the exclusion of dialogue and dialogue with other bodies and agencies, namely with the government,” countered the former party leader of the PS.
Also Carlos César, member of the Council of State, points out that “contrary to what these sectors suggest, there is nor was there, as all good people will acknowledge, any kind of complicity or even indulgence on the part of the Prime Minister or the PS towards the then shareholder of BIC🇧🇷
“António Costa wanted to protect Isabel dos Santos? But wasn’t it the government of António Costa that passed a decree law that allowed BPI to get rid of Isabel dos Santos? He was”, concludes.
For the PS president, “the political pressure expressed at the time and apparently successful was what led Carlos Costa to prevent the appointment of Mário Centeno as Director of the Studies Bureau of the Banco de Portugal”.
In his text, Carlos César also responds to the fact that former PSD chairman Marques Mendes also defended in the same session on Tuesday that the Public Prosecution Service should open a criminal investigation into how Banif was sold.
About Banif, what is known is that Portugal had made a commitment to end the bank’s activities on the continent by May 2015, allowing the European Union to continue to operate in the autonomous regions and in Portuguese communities abroad. known, this commitment was not fulfilled by the government of Passos Coelho and by governor Carlos Costa,” he accuses.
For the president of the PS, “those injured by Banif – in the Azores, in Madeira and in the diaspora – know very well how much this non-compliance has cost them”.
From the perspective of the former president of the regional government of the Azores, “in Portugal, as in any other country with a similar system of separation of powers, whichAbove all, all parties now involved in this process can and should exchange information and opinions, especially with the necessary restraint.”
“The independence and the relationship between these institutions does not seem to be pinched by this. On the contrary, the meaning of the disclosure of the details, used by Carlos Costa, is that it seems disrespectful to me and does not add to the truth and historical context of the subjects resulting, conversely, in the idea that there is too much resentment and too little sense of state on the part of the former governor who, famously, has left office without much credit,” he added.
Source: DN
