The parties insist on hearing the outgoing Minister of Defense, as well as the Minister

PSD, Chega and IL all campaigned this Friday to keep the parliamentary hearings scheduled for the outgoing defense secretary alive, with several parties also wanting to hear the current defense secretary and the previous portfolio holder.

The Prime Minister submitted to the President of the Republic a proposal for the dismissal of Defense Minister Marc Capitao Ferreira, at his own request.

The first reaction of the opposition parties to the resignation of Marco Capitan Ferreira was the parliamentary leader of the Liberal Initiative, Rodrigo Saraiva, who accused António Costa of “instability” in the government.

He then defended that Marco Capitan Ferreira and the current Minister of Foreign Affairs (former portfolio holder of the Ministry of Defense) João Gomes Cravinho “should never have been included” in this leader.

“The problem is not the captain”, the now dismissed secretary of state, “the problem is “general” António Costa”, commented Rodrigo Saraiva, believing that “so far this episode” justified the possibility for a vote of no confidence, which was presented by the Liberal Initiative of the Socialist Executive with an absolute majority votes.

“We are facing another case that shows that PS does not learn and does not regret,” he said, before referring to cases of budget deviation confirmed in the works of the Belen military hospital and “a network of corruption within the General Directorate of Defense Resources” .

“Alberto Coelho, after he was fired from his post as CEO, was appointed to Empordef. And who suggested the name Alberto Coelho to Empordef? It was Marco Captain Ferreira. Ferreira was not in the government,” added Rodrigo Saraiva.

At a press conference, the parliamentary leader of the Liberal Initiative said that the outgoing secretary of state “was already well known during the reign of José Sócrates in terms of political struggle.”

The PSD, in the voice of MP Jorge Paulo Oliveira, defended that Marco Capitan Ferreira should appear in parliament next week as scheduled, stating that it was “in his interest” and in the interest of the government to give explanations and that “the circumstance of resignation exempts from careful examination of all activities under suspicion.”

The Coordinator of the Social Democratic Parliamentary Group at the National Defense Commission also said that he “does not refuse” explanations from Defense Secretary Elena Carreiras if the hearings of the Secretary of State do not take place or if the Social Democrats are not satisfied with the explanations, and also require explanations from “other former members of the government if they are imposed to obtain the truth.”

The MP complained that the government “is constantly dealing with internal issues”, considered that “it is falling apart and unable to focus on solving the country’s problems”, and called on the Prime Minister to restore “order in the house”.

In a similar vein, the Chega leader said the resignation announced today “is not unexpected and should have happened by now” given that Marco Ferreira no longer had “handling conditions” after the various disputes he was involved in.

Like the PSD, Andre Ventura expressed his hope that the resignation was not intended to “obstruct Marco Capitan Ferreira’s speech in Parliament” after a party request to that effect was approved this week.

President Chegi announced that from now on, the party will be adding a request for a hearing from the secretary of defense, wondering how he understood that this secretary of state could remain in office, given that the request for resignation was submitted directly to the prime minister.

Regarding BE, MP Joana Mortagua also considered this resignation a “predictable outcome” after a string of cases involving the secretary of state and pointed to the duties of the prime minister.

“The questionnaire that he imposed on members of the government was a fairy tale for euthanizing children, it does not solve fundamental problems,” he said, also criticizing the government’s excessive use of external consultants.

Finally, he believed that the executive branch, “always managing affairs and affairs, is too distracted to run the country”, and defended this, in addition to the current minister, also former defense minister and holder of the portfolio of foreign affairs, Joao Gomes Cravinho. , should explain, since many cases date back to the time when he was in charge of the defense.

Later, PKP deputy Joao Dias felt that the resignation of Marco Capitan Ferreira was “too late”, pending further results from the ongoing investigation, and recalled that the party criticized cases of “positions that are immortalized in the Ministry of National Defense, and that often do not favor effective and proper administration guardianship.

The Communists also believe that the hearings of the former secretary of state in the defense committee, already scheduled for next week, should be kept.