Shoots in the feet become daily in the majority PS. As much as António Costa is committed to solutions to strengthen political coordination – he has again appointed a deputy secretary of state and a communications director – things are happening at an increasingly intense pace.
This Wednesday, the story of the day revolved around Cohesion Minister Ana Abrunhosa. And it again involved an apology from a party leader, this time a deputy chairman of the PS bank in the Assembly of the Republic (AR), deploring the performance of a party delegate on a parliamentary committee.
The story of Minister Ana Abrunhosa, told by the Observer, can be summed up in a few words. The minister has authority over community funds in the government and two companies partially owned by her husband, businessman António Trigueiros Aragão, have benefited from community funds. The minister argued that she was not involved in these decisions and also asked the Public Prosecution Service for advice. The PGR concluded that the minister’s actions were legal, while at the same time registering elements of “ambiguity” in the law defining the regime for the exercise of functions by holders of political positions and high public offices. This creates barriers to the public procurement of rulers’ spouses, but without mentioning public funds.
The story had developments, during a Local Power Parliamentary Committee meeting in which the Minister for Cohesion attended. At that meeting, a Liberal Initiative delegate, Carlos Guimarães Pinto, at one point said there was an “ethical problem” in the issue of community funding to the minister’s husband, so she resigned or the money should be returned. And then a PS deputy, Isabel Guerreiro, elected by Faro, argued that the intervention of the IL deputy should be deleted from the minutes of the meeting, including the deletion of the audio and video recordings, because they allegedly not included on the agenda of the meeting .
“The PS apologizes to the parliamentary institution, in particular to the Liberal Initiative and to the other parties present in the committee.” [de Poder Local] for the unfortunate manner in which the PS MP had requested the removal of elements from the minutes and recording of the meeting that had taken place.”
Carlos Guimarães Pinto immediately denounced the matter on Twitter, saying it was “unacceptable in democracy”. And then the PSD took the opportunity to ride the wave and said, through a deputy chairman of the bank, Luís Gomes (who was also present at the meeting in question), that the PS had tried the “jumper roll” of his majority to attempt a “return to the blue pencil to democracy and the Portuguese political system”. “It is absolutely regrettable, we cannot condone this kind of practice,” he criticized.
Given the volume the subject deserved in public spaces all day, the PS had no choice but to come to the terreiro to apologize. This time – with US parliament leader Eurico Brilhante Dias accompanying the president of the republic – the main character was deputy Pedro Delgado Alves, vice president of the socialist bank. “The PS apologizes to the parliamentary institution, in particular to the Liberal Initiative and to the other parties present in the committee.” [de Poder Local] for the unfortunate way the PS MP had requested the removal of elements from the minutes and the recording of the meeting that had taken place,” he stated.
In the same statement, the PS MP also stated his party’s willingness to “improve” aspects related to current government procurement laws and transparency in the exercise of political functions. However, the current law “guarantees that no political office holder can intervene in proceedings concerning their spouses”.
Source: DN
