João Neves, Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, and Rita Marques, Secretary of State for Tourism, who have long been in conflict with “their” minister, António Costa Silva, will leave the government.
The news was brought to the fore by Jornal de Negócios and an unofficial government source confirmed it to DN. So far, neither the Prime Minister’s nor the Prime Minister’s cabinet have confirmed the news. This confirmation, by the way, should come from the Presidency of the Republic, which will indicate in an official note which leaders are leaving the government and who will replace them, as well as announcing the date for the respective inauguration. The renovation has been agreed between the minister and the prime minister.
If confirmed, only the Secretary of State for the Sea, José Maria Costa, will not be remodeled. The secretaries of state now leaving the government were taken from the team of former economy minister Pedro Siza Vieira – whose “legacy” in the economy has now been completely removed.
It also remains to be seen whether the prime minister will take the opportunity to nominate a new secretary of state. The post has been vacant since Miguel Alves was forced to resign on the 10th.
In the economy, the divisions between the outgoing secretaries of state and minister António Costa Silva have long been notorious. For example, João Neves made public statements against the minister’s claim that a “transversal” lineage of the IRC would be helpful.
🇧🇷Given the current crisis, I think it would be extremely helpful to have this cross-sectional reduction [do IRC] and from there see what impact it can have in the futuresaid the minister.
🇧🇷It is a mistake to say that we are going to take action on IRC to solve a problem at very short noticeJoão Neves replied.
It has long been recognized within the PS that the situation of clashes at the Ministry of Economic Affairs between the minister and two of his three secretaries of state was intolerable.
“Two of the three state secretaries of the Ministry of Economic Affairs came forward to say the opposite of what the minister said. This confuses me very much.”
Former minister Alexandra Leitão, now deputy, expressed it in the debate program she has every week with José Pacheco Pereira and António Lobo Xavier, “Principle of uncertainty”, on TVI.
“Two of the three deputy ministers of the Ministry of Economic Affairs came forward to say the opposite of what the minister said, this confuses me very much,” he said, even speaking of “perplexity”. This – he added – “is not something that is well tolerated” (secretaries of state disown their ministers). It is therefore something “downright strange”, that is, it is not part of what is “normal”, especially on the eve of the presentation of the state budget, namely that there are “different opinions depending on the sector that each minister supervises”.
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Source: DN
