Parliament today unanimously approved the hearing of the Secretary General of the Information System of the Portuguese Republic (SIRP) and the Director of the Security Information Service (SIS), on the recovery of the former government deputy’s computer containing classified information.
At the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, the PS rejected requests to hear from the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba, his former deputy, Frederico Pinheiro, as well as the Minister of Justice, Catarina Sarmento and Castro .
The PSD also asked for the “explicit inclusion” of this issue in the hearing of the Supervisory Board of the Information System of the Portuguese Republic, which was scheduled shortly afterwards behind closed doors for legal imposition, leading to a tense exchange of accusations between PS and PSD , after the socialists opposed this topic being on today’s agenda.
Due to work being delayed by about an hour, this audition was postponed.
Leaving parliament, the chair of the SIRP’s supervisory board, Constança Urbano de Sousa, said she did not want to make any statements to journalists, only expecting the supervisory board to issue “a press release today”.
Asked by journalists if the statement is about SIS’s role in recovering the computer of ex-Galamba deputy Frederico Pinheiro, Urbano de Sousa replied: “Exactly”.
The hearing with the general secretary of SIRP was presented by PSD, Chega, IL, BE, PAN and Livre. The SIS director is coming to parliament at the request of PSD, Chega, IL, PAN and Livre.
The PSD abstained from the vote during the trip to parliament by the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba, and the former deputy Frederico Pinheiro, who justified this position by the fact that he had already submitted a request to do so in the context of the work of the parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into TAP, said deputy Mónica Quintela.
The vote for the Minister of Justice to go to the Assembly of the Republic, at Chega’s request, earned a vote against from the PS and abstentions from PSD, PCP and Livre.
In recent days, the Minister of Infrastructure has been involved in a controversy with his former deputy Frederico Pinheiro, who resigned a week ago, over information to be provided to the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the political custody of TAP’s management.
The case involved allegations against Frederico Pinheiro for physical assault at the Ministry of Infrastructure and the theft of a laptop computer, after he was fired, and the controversy intensified when the Information and Security Service (SIS) intervened in the recovery of that computer was reported. .
On Tuesday morning, the Prime Minister received Minister João Galamba at the official residence of São Bento. Then, in the afternoon, between about 5 and 6:45 p.m., he was at the palace of Belém, in an audience he had requested from the President of the Republic.
At around 8:20 p.m., the Minister of Infrastructure released a statement informing that “in the current framework of perception created in the public mind” he had submitted his resignation to the Prime Minister, “in favor of the necessary institutional calm” – that António Costa would refuse about half an hour later.
António Costa believed that João Galamba is not “personally at fault of any fault” and said that keeping him as minister is a decision that “makes him fully responsible” as prime minister, probably taken against the opinion of the majority of the Portuguese in and certainly against the commentators.
In a note published on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic on the Internet, after António Costa announced the decision not to accept the resignation of João Galamba, the President of the Republic assumed that he disagreed with the Prime Minister “regarding the political reading of the facts” that led him to keep João Galamba “regarding the prestige of the institutions”.
The Supervisory Board of the Information System of the Portuguese Republic (SIRP) clarified on Tuesday that it requested information on its own initiative about the intervention of the Information and Security Service (SIS).
Source: DN
