The prime minister stressed on Tuesday that he maintains confidence in all members of his executive branch, praised the performance of minister João Gomes Cravinho and ruled out a scenario of possible resignation of the current government.
These views were conveyed by António Costa at the end of a session on the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) in Carnaxide, municipality of Oeiras, on the construction of new housing.
Faced with the fact that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, João Gomes Cravinho, assumed on Monday in Brussels that, as holder of the defense portfolio in the previous government, he was aware of the derailment of the cost of the works of the António Costa, former Military Hospital of Belém, replied: “I have confidence in the government members who are in office”.
“Otherwise they would not be in office. I did not hear the statements directly [de João Cravinho]but I have taken note that the minister said that he will return to the Assembly of the Republic and provide all the clarifications necessary,” he stressed.
On the contrary, according to the executive leader, “it would not be normal for a minister to lie about what he does or does not know”.
“So if a minister speaks the truth, that is to be commended,” he stressed.
Asked about a scenario in which the President of the Republic dismisses the government so that he, António Costa, forms a new government, without resorting to early elections, the Prime Minister rejected this scenario.
“I don’t see a need for a new government. This is the third government I’ve led, in fact for six years I’ve been criticized for being very conservative about retaining members of the executive and making few changes and for overly attached to stability. I am proud that during my tenure several ministers have set a maximum term of office in their respective portfolios, affairs of Education or Justice,” he continued.
António Costa said June 30 will mark a year since the Portuguese declared themselves in elections following a political crisis in which the country “lost almost half a year until it had another approved budget”.
“The message the Portuguese gave is that they want stability, a government that governs and that focuses on its task of solving problems. What is needed are not new political crises,” he countered.
The prime minister later defended that assessment of governments is made at the end of legislatures, but assumed the current year was “very demanding”, in reference to the war in Ukraine and the context of high inflation.
“There are incidents on the way, there are problems to overcome and there are unexpected facts. That is also what politics is,” he said, referring to the successive dismissals in his government.
Faced with journalists’ insistence on the recent successive changes in his government, the leader of the executive believed that “they happened for very different reasons”, from health issues “to two serious political problems” that prompted the resignation of the ministers of Health Motivated , Marta Temido and the Minister of Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos.
“There have also been more recent problems with some members of the government, not related to any activity they have engaged in as members of the government, but because of situations in their past lives, or even the lives of their relatives,” he noted . .
For António Costa, “these are situations that no one wants, which I deeply regret as a sign of less focus from the government in its activities, but I believe it is a phase that has become obsolete”.
“Stability is an important value because it can ensure policy continuity,” he added.
Source: DN
