Chega this Wednesday called for the resignation of ministers Fernando Medina and Duarte Cordeiro, after reports of an alleged exchange of favors between PS and PSD in the preparation of lists for the 2017 municipal elections.
“These are two ministers who have a deadline. We are patiently waiting to see what the Prime Minister will say today in this parliamentary debate, but the great truth is that neither Fernando Medina nor Duarte Cordeiro are in a position to stay in government at the moment. “, said Chega’s parliamentary leader.
Pedro Pinto believed that this one “a very serious matter” and believed that the finance minister and former mayor of Lisbon was already “weakened” by his name being involved in “several matters”.
Chega’s parliamentary leader demanded an explanation from those in power but also from the PSD, pointing out that if the social democrats want to “talk about corruption”, they should “start at home”.
Pedro Pinto also rejected André Ventura’s involvement in this controversy, stating that “the president of Chega is not involved in this investigation at any time”.
“There is a message that you receive and it appeared in the report yesterday, but at no point did neither the prosecution nor the PJ say anything,” added.
Already on Tuesday evening, the president of Chega, André Ventura, in a publication on the social network Twitter, defended that the finance and environment ministers “cannot remain in government”, after calling on the president of the Republic to “sack the government”, claiming that “the institutions are in an accelerated and unacceptable decline”.
In the morning, the Liberal Initiative parliamentary leader also commented on Tuesday night’s report, saying that “greater demand from voters, political actors, the press” should be needed.
“At the time of the vote, the Portuguese cannot continue to complain, after almost 50 years of democracy, that everything is wrong, and then you don’t change the actors and if you don’t change the actors you don’t change attitudes, no if the policy changes, the solutions don’t change,” he insisted, insisting that “after the fact that we are not coming out of the same thing, we are not coming out of the doldrums, we are not coming out of a stagnation that is not only social and economic, but also political is”.
Asked whether ministers Fernando Medina and Duarte Cordeiro should provide explanations, Rodrigo Saraiva said that “every political actor should always be available to provide explanations, either to the press when questions are raised, to political forums, or later to the judicial forums when investigations take place and when they conduct their proceedings”.
A TVI/CNN report denounces an alleged exchange of favors between PS and PSD in the process of drawing up lists for the 2017 municipal elections to ensure the preservation of certain parishes in Lisbon.
According to TVI/CNN, which cites an investigation by the Public Prosecution Service and the judicial police, Medina is a suspect in cases dating back to his time as mayor of Lisbon, including the case Tutti Fruitti. At stake include alleged crimes of corruption, abuse of power and unauthorized use of political office.
The news also states that there are dozens of wiretaps and hundreds of emails involving not only the current finance minister, but also the environment minister, Duarte Cordeiro, who was number 2 in Medina at the time in the Lisbon room.
The investigation involves several emails “with criminal relevance,” a PJ inspector said in a case report tutti frutti, underlining the existence of “political agreements between Sérgio Azevedo (of the PSD), Duarte Cordeiro and Fernando Medina (of the PS)” for the allocation of agreements and the placement of people “in strategic positions” in the 2017 municipal elections .
Reference is also made to the “issuance of false invoices and agreements with PS officials for the award of public contracts to companies”, as well as a “wedge” requested by Luís Filipe Vieira, president of Benfica until 2021, so that a property of his son was exempt from IMI.
The two ministers denied having been heard by the Public Prosecution Service in the context of these suspicions.
Source: DN
