Former Banco de Portugal governor Carlos Costa on Tuesday accused the prime minister of politically interfering with the banking regulator in the Isabel dos Santos case, arguing that he confirms this in the written message he sent him.
“This week, on the same day he announced a lawsuit, the Prime Minister sent me a written notice acknowledging that he contacted me to convey to me the impropriety of the removal of engineer Isabel dos Santos. of political power to interfere with the Bank of Portugal,” Mário Centeno’s predecessor said in a speech at the presentation of the book “The Governador”, in the Gulbenkian, in Lisbon.
Carlos Costa also confirmed that António Costa “contacted him” on his mobile phone on the afternoon of April 12, following a meeting the former governor had with Isabel dos Santos, with the partner of Angolan businesswoman Fernando Telles and with the director of the supervision department Carlos Albuquerque.
According to Carlos Costa, “in that phone call he told me that the daughter of the president of a friendly country should not be treated badly”.
“From now on, it’s up to everyone to make their own judgment,” he said.
The book “O Governador”, edited by Dom Quixote, is the result of a series of interviews by the Observer journalist Luís Rosa with Carlos Costa, who ran Banco de Portugal between 2010 and 2020, and has generated controversy.
The Prime Minister, António Costa, has already declared that he will sue the former governor of Banco de Portugal for insulting his honor, after Mário Centeno’s predecessor reported in the book that he had been pressured by the head of government not to return Isabel. Pull. dos Santos from BIC.
During the intervention, Carlos Costa justified the decision to publish the book with “a contribution to strengthening the respect that the institution of Banco de Portugal deserves”, in what he says is a “public interest task”.
For example, the former governor considered it his “duty to contribute to the scrutiny” of the ten years in which he led the Bank of Portugal, as it was an “accountable and common practice in Northern Europe” and contributed to an “understanding of present and future conditions”.
“The Bank of Portugal told much more than people apparently think, than people look at the public news at the time,” he stressed, highlighting the role of the regulator in the country’s economic and financial stability.
Former presidents of the republic Cavaco Silva and Ramalho Eanes, former prime minister Passos Coelho and PSD president Luís Montenegro were present at the book launch.
Teixeira dos Santos, former finance minister of the PS government led by José Sócrates, and former socialist deputy António Galamba also attended the presentation, standing in a fully packed room with many people standing.
Other personalities included former PSD ministers Miguel Relvas, Paula Teixeira da Cruz, Aguiar-Branco, Miguel Cadilhe and CDS-PP António Pires de Lima.
In addition to Luís Montenegro, the current leadership of the PSD was also attended by the parliamentary leader, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento.
Also present were former Prosecutor General of the Republic Joana Marques Vidal, former banker José Maria Ricciardi, magistrate Maria José Morgado, sociologist António Barreto or former political adviser of Passos Coelho Miguel Morgado.
Source: DN
