The Prime Minister insisted on Thursday that the Secretary of State for Agriculture will not be charged in a judicial process and invoked the principles of law, questioning whether the wife should be fired because her husband is accused in a criminal trial.
Costa believed that the case involving the Secretary of State for Agriculture is “a particularly clear case” because it is one in which “the Public Prosecutor (MP) has already investigated everything, with the MP certainly having access to all the information he wanted and could investigate, where the MP had investigated everything – the accounts, the assets, this and that – accused a person and only one person”.
“So and it will be us, am I going to replace the MP for a reason I don’t have, that I don’t know and I don’t know anything about? (…) And I’m going to fire someone’s wife because the man becomes accused?”he asked.
Costa said that, despite not knowing “whether the husband will be convicted,” one thing is known: “The Secretary of State has not been accused of anything.”
Faced with comments from Chega bank – which asked “what about ethics” – Costa replied: “What is the case with ethics, is being married to someone who has been accused? Does that compromise ethics?”.
“Oh gentlemen, let’s see: civilization in the world of justice has taken many centuries to build and there is no leftist populism to shake my beliefs about the principles of the rule of law”he said.
The Prime Minister then added that the government had already asked the Secretary of State whether or not the “joint account contained the amounts which the newspaper claims are included in the prosecution’s indictment”.
“What we were told is that no, that it is from a joint account where only income from work is counted”he underlined.
Costa also added that the executive had questioned the secretary of state “questions about the declaration you have made about your income”with the Secretary of State emphasizing that she had declared “all tax revenue” she had provided.
“I have a principle of taking people at their word and I also have no alternative because I am not the MP and therefore I cannot examine the accounts. I do not have access to the tax return”he said.
The CEO said he had “not the slightest doubt that the authorities will investigate if there is any breach of any obligation”.
“There’s one thing I don’t have the slightest doubt about either: If Republican ethics are offended, the Secretary of State will be fired. As if I ever offend Republican ethics, I’ll resign myself.”insured.
António Costa responded to the BE coordinator, Catarina Martins, who alluded to the case of the new Secretary of State for Agriculture, Carla Alves, and the controversy in which she is involved.
Catarina Martins said that when reading newspapers one can only “think that it would be difficult for a PS government to do as many favors to the right as this government does”.
“With every case that is closed, with every appointment that is made, a new one opens”criticized Catarina Martins.
The blocking coordinator asked if “at least it is not absolutely reckless how the government has handled the appointments and responsibilities of its members”.
“It is not at all reckless that, after dismissals on paths that have so much to explain, the first thing the government does in new appointments is a new appointment in which it has to explain what in fact seems so inexplicable to the majority of the citizens of this country?”he wondered.
Addressing the prime minister, Catarina Martins also asked: “How can these cases be explained?”.
“How can one explain this carelessness of the absolute majority? This carelessness of the PS towards public affairs, towards democracy, towards its institutions?”he added.
In response to these questions, António Costa said he was surprised “very sorry that she is a member of the BE, and that she is Mrs. Catarina Martins”around the “question about the need to fire a woman from the government because her husband is accused in a criminal case”.
“If a member of the government has undeclared income, he cannot support himself”
The Prime Minister defended that if a member of the government has undeclared income, he should leave the executive, noting that the Secretary of State for Agriculture assured him that he has no black-declared income in his account.
“If, in the abstract, a member of the government has undeclared income, of course he cannot remain a member of the government. Obviously I think this is a clear and transparent matter. It is good that we agree on minimums”said Antonio Costa.
The Prime Minister spoke in the debate on the motion of censure against the government filed by the Liberal Initiative and reacted to the President of Chega, André Ventura, about the seizure of joint accounts that the new Secretary of State for Agriculture, Carla Alves, has with her husband and former mayor of Vinhais, reported Thursday by Correio da Manhã.
“What can I find out? The secretary of state tells me that there is no black and white income in her account. (…) She does not know whether it is in her husband’s accounts or not. what you tell me”he stressed.
António Costa stressed that when she was already regional director of agriculture, the current secretary of state was “already obliged to continue with income statements”.
“And that’s why her income statement will already show what income she has and what she doesn’t have, what assets she has or doesn’t have. What she told me was what I can tell her. I obviously don’t have access to your bank accounts, I can only rely on what the Secretary of State has told me. If the Secretary of State is telling the truth, I have nothing to point to”insisted.
Earlier, Andre Ventura, leader of Chega, stated that “the PJ [Polícia Judiciária] discovered the multiplication of money deposited in the bank in the name of Carla Alves”.”Here the conversation is easy: it is that the account of the secretary of state of your government has received money in three years that does not correspond to your statement”argued Ventura.
“And I ask if this is what you want to pass on to the country, the image that it is normal for a ruler to have money in his accounts that he has not declared”shot.
Costa points out that those involved in the Alexandra Reis case have drawn consequences
The prime minister considered the case of former secretary of state for finance Alexandra Reis a “relevant matter” and emphasized that anyone who was aware of the compensation of 500,000 euros “took the appropriate consequences”.
In the debate on the Liberal Initiative (IL) motion of censure, Costa, responding to Bloco de Esquerda coordinator Catarina Martins, believed that the case involving former Secretary of State Alexandra Reis was a “case that pertinent”.
“For that reason, the Finance Minister, upon learning of this, asked the Secretary of State to resign. When he asked and when he asked who knew, everyone already knows who knew, and those who knew have the necessary consequences drawn from knowing”he said.
The Prime Minister stressed that when the €500,000 compensation for Alexandra Reis was being negotiated, the current finance minister, Fernando Medina, was not yet in charge of the portfolio, and former finance minister, João Leão, “he has already stated publicly that the Ministry of Finance was not aware of the payment of this fee”.
Responding to Catarina Martins, Costa also denied that there are “case after case” in his executive branch, arguing that “with the various government resignations, there are very different situations”.
“There are two people who unfortunately left because of illness, there were two ministers who resigned for political reasons, there are three secretaries of state who left because of adjustments, there was one who did because he understood that, according to Republican ethics, accused in criminal proceedings, should not remain in office”he remembered.
Referring to the case of Alexandra Reis, Costa emphasized that “when there was a situation of a secretary of state where the secretary of the treasury discovered that there was a situation that could compromise republican ethics, he asked the secretary of state to resign immediately, which she immediately agreed and promptly did”.
This Thursday, Correio da Manhã reported the seizure of joint accounts that the new Secretary of State for Agriculture, Carla Alves, with her husband and former mayor of Vinhais, Américo Pereira, released information less than 24 hours after taking over the ruler’s property.
The Public Prosecutor charged him with several crimes and ordered the arrest of assets of the lawyer and former socialist mayor, who left the leadership of the municipality in 2017, in a trial worth more than 4.7 million euros that still has three defendants.
At stake are several deals concluded between 2006 and 2015, which also involve a company, a businessman and the rector of the former seminary of this municipality in the district of Bragança.
According to the investigation, discrepancies between deposited and declared amounts have been discovered in the couple’s accounts over several years.
Source: DN
