The PSD chairman said on Monday that the party will give the prime minister, António Costa, “a second chance” to answer the six questions he failed to answer about the process of dissolving and selling Banif.
“Us [PSD] We sent 12 questions to the prime minister and he left six unanswered and like his timbre used a skill, which was, instead of answering the 12 questions one by one, he answered all 12 all at once. Luís Montenegro, to journalists, in Guarda, where he is part of the “Sentir Portugal” initiative, before taking part in a meeting of the Acreditar movement.
Faced with the Prime Minister’s answer to the 12 questions initially asked by the Social Democrats, the PSD leader assured: “we are going to give the Prime Minister a second chance to get the six [perguntas] who have not responded and to clarify some of the statements he made in the general reply he addressed to Parliament.
“We sincerely hope that Dr. António Costa can be more foresighted, that he can dispel any doubts that have unfortunately arisen as to what his position has been in the past, whether it be interference in the work of Banco de Portugal to determine the suitability of managers of financial institutions, or in a strategy that, from our point of view, is already very confirmed, that led to the solution of Banif, to an information leak that made it inevitable and to an exhaustion of the value of the bank that at the time expected to be sold on the market, with much greater benefit to the state treasury,” he justified.
The PSD sent the questions on Nov. 23, after former Banco de Portugal governor Carlos Costa accused António Costa of pressure and “political interference” in the process to remove businesswoman Isabel dos Santos from BIC.
The PSD’s parliamentary leader believed on January 25 that the Prime Minister had confirmed in replies to the party that he was “interfering with Banco de Portugal”, both in the case involving Isabel dos Santos and in the Banif resolution process .
Joaquim Miranda Sarmento explained that the PSD asked 12 questions and expected the Prime Minister to “answer question by question, not least because they are individual and some require a direct answer, and the Prime Minister presented a composition with a series of elements that are new and do not clarify what the PSD asked”.
In responses sent to parliament, the Prime Minister stated that he had never taken any steps with Banco de Portugal “or anyone else” in favor of Isabel dos Santos’ suitability and was acting only to resolve the shareholder blockade in BPI.
As for Banif questions, António Costa referred that the Bank of Portugal, headed by Carlos Costa, concluded in December 2015 that the sale of Banif by resolution to Santander was the only alternative to liquidation, and led the process.
Luís Montenegro PSD is today in Guarda, the sixth district elected under the “Sentir Portugal” initiative, carried out following the commitment he made at the 40th Congress to carry out one week per month in the different districts of the country.
Source: DN
