Chega says buying CTT shares shows Pedro Nuno is unfit to be prime minister

The Chegi leader said this Thursday that the case of the purchase of CTT shares by Parpública shows that PS Secretary General Pedro Nuno Santos is “absolutely unfit” to be Prime Minister.

“This shows once again that the government that we had and which will now cease to operate is not a credible government, but above all, it shows that Pedro Nuno Santos is not a credible leader and that he is completely unfit to carry out the task of being first is the minister,” said André Ventura upon his arrival at the Association of the Wood and Furniture Industry of Portugal (AIMMP) in Porto.

According to Ventura, the statements of Pedro Nuno Santos, who this afternoon said that as Minister of Infrastructure, he knew and agreed to the purchase of CTT shares but did not lead the process, only served to further exacerbate the lack of transparency in which he found himself. participates in business.

In addition to Pedro Nuno Santos, President Chegi also criticized Prime Minister António Costa’s excuses that the share purchase was made “out of caution” and to ensure the continuation of the civil service before renewing the concession.

“The Prime Minister now admits that he decided to hide the business for economic reasons. I remember that, for example, the reports of Parpública do not include this purchase of shares and therefore this afternoon we can conclude that it was a maneuver by António Costa and Pedro Nuno Santos, because it was he who controlled this territory in order to hide this reality, and this is very serious,” he emphasized.

According to Ventura, the government’s goal was not to tell people why “such an absurd deal” was made, because he wanted PCP and BE to at least refrain from approving the state budget.

And he added: “The government knew that public opinion would be largely against it, and so what it decided to do was a charm move that was meant to say to the parties on the left: ‘We are on the path we promised you.’ you see that we are already making purchases, let’s try to hide this from the country so that it does not become known.”

According to him, with this operation the government sought to obtain political dividends at the expense of taxpayers’ money.

President Chegi announced that, through his legal department of the Assembly of the Republic, this Thursday he submitted a request that former Finance Minister João Leão, current Secretary General, be heard before the Budget and Finance Committee. PS: Pedro Nuno Santos, former coordinator of BE Catarina Martins and former secretary general of the PCP Jerónimo de Souza.

ABOUT Economic newspaper reported on Wednesday that the previous government, without disclosing it, had instructed Parpública to buy CTT shares on the orders of then Finance Minister João Leão.

In Parliament, PS Secretary General Pedro Nuno Santos denied that he had given instructions to the Ministry of Finance or Parpública to purchase CTT shares while he was Minister of Infrastructure, and sent clarifications on this matter to the government.

In its statement, Parpublique asserts that “the purchase of shares of CTT, carried out before October 2021, took place in accordance with legal requirements,” saying that this was done on the orders of the then Minister of Finance João Leão and with the prior opinion of UTAM – Technical Unit for Monitoring and monitoring of the public business sector.