The prime minister will be in parliament on Wednesday for another general policy debate, in which he will try to highlight the evolution of the Portuguese economy to counter the series of incidents involving minister João Galamba.
“We will continue to obey no matter how loud the voices are here [no parlamento] from some bleachers or anyone who wants to challenge us to institutional tricks, which is clearly not the dance we want to dance.” declared António Costa on March 22, during the final general policy debate in the Assembly of the Republic.
At the time, the main points of discussion were related to the remarks of the President of the Republic about the real ability of a “warmed-up majority” of the PS to respond to the country’s problems in sectors such as housing and education, or to mitigate the consequences of inflation.
With regard to TAP, detailed explanations were expected from Christine Ourmières-Widener, who was fired as executive president on March 6, and from former Treasury Secretary Alexandra Reis. One of the objectives was the need to determine the possible responsibility of Finance Minister Fernando Medina in paying compensation of 500 thousand euros to Alexandra Reis for her departure from the administration of TAP.
Two months later, the political focus is on the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba.
João Galamba, who replaced Pedro Nuno Santos as infrastructure minister in January, has been involved in several controversies, the first of which concerns his possible responsibility for scheduling a meeting between PS deputies and the former TAP executive president before the French manager appears. for parliament.
The investigation into the facts relating to that meeting, within the framework of the parliamentary committee of inquiry TAP, has revealed episodes that were later regarded as more serious and unusual: Assaults in the cabinet of the minister; a computer belonging to the Department of Infrastructure containing information classified by a former deputy sheriff (Frederico Pinheiro) who was recently fired; and call on the Information and Security Service (SIS) to repair that computer.
On the morning of May 2, António Costa received João Galamba in São Bento to hear the explanations he had to give, and at the beginning of the evening announced that he had decided to keep him in the government and to exempt him from responsibility in connection with a succession of incidents that the prime minister himself described as “deplorable”.
Two days later, in a communication to the country, the President of the Republic acknowledged his disagreement with the Prime Minister’s decision and left a warning: “To prevent the emergence and growth of unstoppable and unwanted conflict factors, I will have to become even more observant and more involved in everyday life, to avoid resorting to exceptional powers which the Constitution grants me and which I cannot relinquish”.
Wednesday’s bimonthly debate thus takes place at a time when the President of the Republic is distancing himself from the leader of the executive and when the opposition in general is demanding not only João Galamba’s resignation, but also detailed knowledge of the intervention of members of the Government (including António Costa) came up with the idea of involving the SIS in this case.
António Costa has stated that he had no prior knowledge of the communication to SIS of the incident involving the computer from the Ministry of Infrastructure. And given the requests for the resignation of the Secretary General of the Information System of the Portuguese Republic (SIRP), Ambassador Graça Mira Gomes, namely through the PSD, defends the legality of the action of the SIS in a case that he characterizes as “simply “. “.
On the political front, the prime minister supported the statement that there is a difference between the media plan and the “real concerns” of citizens with living conditions.
To this end, it contrasts with the incidents of João Galamba data on the evolution of the Portuguese economy, according to which growth was 2.4% in the first quarter of this year – one of the largest in the European Union – along with prospects of gradual reduction of inflation and debt. It has also accentuated the idea that the “right” wants to create an “artificial” political crisis before the benefits of the economy have practical consequences for citizens’ lives in general.
On the opposition side, Chega and Iniciativa Liberal defend the dissolution of parliament and the calling of early parliamentary elections, a position that the PSD has not yet claimed at the institutional level.
However, today, at the conclusion of the PSD Parliamentary Days, the party’s president, Luís Montenegro, defended in Funchal that the current political cycle dominated by the PS is coming to an end.
“You don’t have to be so close, they’re there like limpets, clinging there. This is what democracy is, you’ve had your time, you’ve had your chance and you’ve already wasted it. Our turn is coming, shall we be in the right place to win elections and govern Portugal,” he said.
As for the Bloco de Esquerda, the general policy debate with the prime minister will be the last for Catarina Martins as party coordinator, a role in which she will be replaced by Mariana Mortágua.
Like the banks on the right of the PS, the Bloco de Esquerda defends the prime minister’s hearing, “preferably in person”, in the TAP Commission of Inquiry and understands that João Galamba does not have the indispensable credibility to continue as Infrastructure Minister.
The PCP adopts a different line of opposition to the government, trying to focus its intervention on criticizing the decline of public services and asking for a more effective response against the rise in the cost of living, with the cases surrounding Minister João Galamba are relegated to a secondary position. .
Source: DN
