The Minister of Agriculture will address the Assembly of the Republic on Wednesday morning to clarify the controversy surrounding the appointment and subsequent resignation of her former Secretary of State Carla Alves.
This parliamentary hearing with Minister Maria do Céu Antunes was requested by the PSD, Chega, Iniciativa Liberal and PAN and approved on Tuesday by the Agriculture and Fisheries Committee, with the PS abstaining.
The appointment for the next Wednesday morning of the hearing with Maria do Céu Antunes, in the parliamentary committee for agriculture and fisheries, was sent to the Lusa office by a socialist source.
Last Thursday, Carla Alves resigned on the understanding that she did not have the “political and personal conditions” to take office the day after taking office.
Previously, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, believed that Carla Alves had “a political disability”.
On that day, the newspaper Correio da Manhã reported the seizure of joint bank accounts that the then Secretary of State for Agriculture had with her husband and former mayor of Vinhais, Américo Pereira, information released less than 24 hours after the official took office.
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.
On Friday, the newspaper Público reported that the outgoing secretary of state “informed the minister of custody, before taking office as governor last Wednesday, of the frozen accounts she shares with her husband.”
In response, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food assured that Maria do Céu Antunes was not aware of “any involvement in legal proceedings” by Carla Alves.
Source: DN
