The President of the Republic and the Prime Minister go hand in hand to ward off the idea of government instability. This Tuesday, they in turn had to express their views on the soundness of the executive in the face of day-to-day affairs involving rulers.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, on the day that seven years had passed since his first election as president, again ruled out a scenario of resignation from the government, but warned that a possible departure of António Costa would lead to the dissolution of parliament.
The head of state reiterated that it makes no sense to dissolve parliament “in the current context of the war, the economic and financial crisis, the existing situation with an absolute majority elected in elections less than a year ago”, and considered that ” the Portuguese usually understood, and so did the parties”, is his position.
Afterwards, he responded to those who proposed the scenario of “dismissing the government” as an alternative to “rehearsing another government with the same majority”, stating: “And if the prime minister doesn’t want to? It’s dissolution of the government. That’s why is , a false solution”. “This is something that in the Portuguese system implies an immediate conflict between the president and the government and so let’s be clear: at the moment it is unwise to think about the dissolution of parliament, and there is no middle ground he added.
On March 30, 2022, when he inaugurated the XXIII Constitutional Government, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa warned António Costa that “it will not be politically easy” to replace him as head of government in the middle of the legislature, implying that in that case, would plead for early legislation.
“If you change the prime minister, there will be a dissolution of parliament,” he said yesterday, referring to the “theoretical hypothesis of the appearance of another prime minister from the PS area.”
“There was a dissolution of parliament, because this majority was formed with a prime minister who was not only leader of the party, but also leader of the government. It was very important, I said that in the inauguration speech and that’s why I was without reason, that is, with another prime minister, parliament would be dissolved,” he stressed.
According to the president, at the moment “the existing path for the government to improve its administration is to correct what is not going well, to go better”, and “the opposition continues its path of opposition, of course more and more vigorously, because that is which is natural, as electoral acts approach”.
Costa guarantees stability
António Costa also reiterated to journalists the need for political stability. In response to André Ventura, who challenged Marcelo to “fire” the government – which he cannot on it’s ownSince only he can dissolve parliament, Costa stressed that almost a year has passed since the Portuguese were called to vote and that they left a “clear message” in the ballot boxes that they want stability. “If stability was needed a year ago, more stability is needed today than ever. We have already managed to recover economically from the pandemic situation, companies have managed to resist and move forward. Last year our exports for the first time worth more than half of our gross domestic product,” the prime minister argued.
At the same time, the Prime Minister was questioned about the former Minister of Infrastructure’s revelation that he was aware of TAP’s compensation of 500,000 euros to Alexandra Reis, former Secretary of State for Finance, and expressed “surprise” at the fact that Pedro Nuno Santos was finally aware of the payment and validated it. Without wanting to dwell on the subject, the minister only emphasized that he hopes that the work of the General Inspectorate of Finance will be completed so that all the contours of this controversy are known.
“I was as surprised as he was to discover that he had known and authorized it anyway. Finance did not know, it is a point where it is not worth insisting. Everyone knows that there is no information given to the Ministry of Finance,” said António Costa.
The head of government also took the opportunity to express confidence in his foreign minister, João Gomes Cravinho, who was heard in parliament over the derailment of the work of the former military hospital when he was transferred from the defense portfolio last month. took over. government. With Lusa
Source: DN
