The presidents of the PSD and the CDS-PP this Friday accused the government of devaluing agriculture and regarded the change in the government structure that ends, at least for the time being, with the position of secretary of state for the sector as “bad news”. .
“I was in this room when I heard about this government decision to fire the Secretary of State for Agriculture”said Luís Montenegro on the initiative of the European People’s Party in Lisbon.
For the PSD chairman this change is “the demonstration of the devaluation, of the lack of respect that the Portuguese government has for this sector”, without “parallel in the history of the government”.
“Today the Prime Minister has obvious difficulties in recruiting high-level political personnel in his party sphere and beyond. I don’t know if this inability is related to the fact that perhaps no one wanted or reasonably completed the 36 questions in the infamous questionnaire … that the Prime Minister imposes it on those who enter the government, but refuses to apply it to those who are already there,” he criticized.
Luís Montenegro felt that the lack of this position was “bad news for Portuguese agriculture”, which he conceded could have an effect on “the increased difficulty of implementing policies that serve the peasants”.
In the same initiative of the PPE, the leader of the CDS-PP, Nuno Melo, stressed that, with the change made by the government, the Minister of Agriculture will be assisted by the Secretary of State for Fisheries.
“It is a case of saying that agriculture goes to fishing. Portuguese farmers deserved much better, Portuguese farmers deserve an explanation,” the Christian Democrat challenged.
The amendment to the organic structure of the government, published this Friday, which does not include the post of Secretary of State for Agriculture, takes place because that secretariat no longer exists and matters are ensured by the Minister of Agriculture, the government justifies.
“The idea of a Secretariat of State does not exist,” defended the Secretary of State for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, André Moz Caldas, in statements to Lusa, justifying that the change of the organization and the functioning regime of the XXIII Constitutional Government, this Friday published, stipulating that the Minister of Agriculture is no longer assisted by the Secretary of State for Agriculture, does not imply extinction.
“At the moment he is not in office in the government. If he returns [o Governo] to hold this office will appear again in the Organic Law,” he added.
According to the Decree-Law, published this Friday, which will come into force, in the sections relating to the members of the Government to which they relate, from the date of the respective appointment, considering that all acts performed in the meantime have been ratified, the Minister of Agriculture and Food is now assisted in the performance of his duties by the Secretary of State for Fisheries.
The Organization and Functioning of the XXIII Constitutional Government, approved in May, provided that the Minister of Agriculture and Food should be assisted in the exercise of her functions by the Secretary of State for Agriculture and by the Secretary of State for Fisheries, now referred to as only this last one.
Source: DN
