When he told the President of the Republic about the incidents that had taken place at the Ministry of Infrastructure on the night of April 26 – alleged attacks involving an aide dismissed by the Minister and four of his associates (the Chief of Staff, a press officer and two assistants) – the prime minister informed Marcelo that the story had gone so far as to include an intervention by the SIS (an officer went to the home of the dismissed deputy to fetch him the duty computer he had taken from his office).
“If I said in any way that I informed the President of the Republic about the SIS intervention, I will use your question to immediately correct it. I never informed the President of the Republic about the SIS intervention, let me be clear to me.”
It was the prime minister himself who revealed it yesterday, in parliament, in yet another general orientation debate. In a response to the PSD parliament leader, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, but later supplemented in a conversation with the president of Chega, André Ventura, Costa clarified that he had not spoken to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa about the performance of the security services. “If I said in any way that I informed the President of the Republic about the SIS intervention, I will use your question to immediately correct it. I never informed the President of the Republic about the SIS intervention, let me be clear to me,” said Costa adventure.
The SIS’s performance on that famous evening was one of the main topics of yesterday’s debate – and Costa reiterated once again that he had no prior knowledge, much less authorization, of this intervention. In fact, as he reaffirmed yesterday, no one in the government has given the SIS an “order” to act. And more: “Not only has no one in this government issued an order, but there is one thing I can be sure of: If we have issued an unlawful order, I am sure neither the Secretary General of the Intelligence Community ( SIRP), neither the Director of SIS nor any SIS employee would carry out an unlawful order.”
Thus, SIS was made aware of what had happened – a dismissed deputy took home a laptop on duty allegedly containing classified material – and acted on its own accord.
“If I said in any way that I informed the President of the Republic about the SIS intervention, I will use your question to immediately correct it. I never informed the President of the Republic about the SIS intervention, let me be clear to me.”
Apparently, the idea of using the information services was conveyed that evening by the Deputy Secretary of State to the Prime Minister, António Mendonça Mendes, to the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba. Then it was his chief of staff, Eugénia Correia, who called the services to tell them what had happened. And then there was a SIS agent who went to the house of the deputy sheriff, Frederico Pinheiro, to get his computer. It is now in the custody of the PJ after passing through CEGER (the body that manages the government’s computer network).
Costa, at the insistence of the opposition, declined to be precise about his assistant secretary of state’s role in this hodge-podge, arguing that “these are just details to liven up a soap opera”. “In my opinion, given the alertness and in the context of the threats of which it is aware in relation to that sector of activity, the Security Information Service (SIS) has acted in an appropriate, proportionate manner and has not exercised its powers nor the exercise of foreign powers,” he defended the head of government, in response to IL.
After the debate, it became known that the PS failed to TAP the investigative committee with the hearing of the Prime Minister, as well as that of his Deputy Secretary of State, the Minister of the Interior, José Luís Carneiro, and also those responsible maxima of the SIS , the SIRP (Information System of the Portuguese Republic, the top of the “secrets”) and the PSP. The PS coordinator in the committee, Bruno Aragão, said that the socialists would “obviously not follow” these demands, as “none of them fit the purpose of this committee”.
“The first way for us to fight populism is not to imitate populism. One way not to imitate is not to want to put ourselves in the place of the institutions in doing their duty. I have a very inflexible rule upheld in good times and bad: to justice what justice belongs to politics, what belongs to politics.”
The debate also served the right-wing opposition of the PS to explore “Operação Tutti Frutti”, in which the PJ investigates companies and interest networks in the Lisbon Chamber. André Ventura asked the head of government if he had confidence in his finance ministers (Fernando Medina) and environment ministers (Duarte Cordeiro), both of whom would be named in the judicial inquiry. And Costa replied, “Obviously I retain all political confidence and have the utmost respect for the suitability of Dr. Fernando Medina and Dr. Duarte Cordeiro.” “There is no debate in which the honorable Member [André Ventura] do not ask for the resignation of a member of the government,” Costa told the head of Chega. “All members of the government have already been fired themselves. Which, by the way, we are very honored on your part,” he added.
He had previously said in a response to the PSD: “If the judiciary has a case that I am not aware of – I do not have access to the same information that TVI has – the judiciary exercising its functions, I exercise mine ” . And he added: “The first way for us to fight populism is not to imitate populism. One way not to imitate is not to want to put ourselves in the place of the institutions in doing their duty. times and in bad times: justice what belongs to justice, to politics what belongs to politics.”
Source: DN
