The Council of Ministers will approve this Thursday the new mechanism for scrutinizing the personalities elected to join the government – a mechanism designed to prevent a repetition of cases such as those of Secretaries of State Miguel Alves, Alexandra Reis and Carla Alves, the three forced to resign after matters relating to his past came to light. The novelty was put forward by the prime minister this Wednesday, in yet another debate in parliament.
António Costa acknowledged that the President of the Republic rejected the first version of the mechanism proposed last week. According to him, after receiving the proposal, Marcelo acted “zealous” and then considered the solution presented “not viable” (for reasons that the prime minister has not explained).
Then the head of government came up with a second solution and got the green light from Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. “I have presented another alternative solution which the President of the Republic has given me permission to say he agrees with and which I will submit tomorrow [esta quinta-feira] to the Council of Ministers. You will understand that I am not saying this out of respect for my colleagues in the government,” the prime minister responded to a question from PSD party leader Joaquim Miranda Sarmento on Wednesday.
Costa did not disclose the content of the proposal, but from what he would say later in the same debate, it was understood that it will not contain any prior visa from the Assembly of the Republic in respect of the personalities nominated to join the Government. This, he said, would mean a “compression” of presidential powers. Armed with Marcelo’s arguments (as professor of constitutional law) about the presidential power to appoint rulers, the head of government recalled that the president of the republic considers his power to be “substantial” and not merely “formal”.
The “cases and fallen” (Costa’s expression) continued to mark the essence of the opposition’s criticism of the government. This time, the one in the spotlight was former Secretary of State for Tourism Rita Marques, who a few days ago transferred to the administration of a group in the tourism sector to which she had granted tax breaks during her administration.
Costa split from his former ruler, saying he was “99.9 percent” sure Rita Marques’ behavior was illegal, in addition to saying it “doesn’t conform to republican ethics.” However, he rejected proposals (from both the Bloco de Esquerda and the PAN) to withdraw the tax breaks now, conceding only that a “reassessment” would be carried out. “If the question is: go there and see again if that establishment really deserves tourist use, sure, it costs me nothing to do it again, ask the Minister of Economy and Sea that the new Secretary of State proceed with the reassessment depending on the facts established by the tourism institute,” he replied, when questioned about this by the leader of the BE, Catarina Martins.
Costa also distanced himself from Alexandra Reis, the former Secretary of State for Finance. According to her, when she was appointed to NAV, she committed a “violation of the status of public administrator” without repaying the compensation of half a million euros she had received months before when she left TAP.
Replying to Carlos Guimarães Pinto (IL), António Costa said he “deeply” regretted the government’s internal problems: “Nobody likes it, I deeply regret it, I’m sorry for the Portuguese, the Portuguese don’t like it , they are criticizing the government for that, and the government needs to take the lesson.” Immediately afterwards, however, he downplayed the consequences: “None of these problems [internos no Governo] translated into a problem for every Portuguese or for every Portuguese.”
Source: DN
