IL welcomes Costa’s hearings, but does not want him in the European Council

The President of the Liberal Initiative (IL), Rui Rocha, welcomed this Saturday the hearings held by the Ministry of State in the case of former Prime Minister António Costa within the framework of Operation Influential Man, but stressed that he does not recognize his merits as President of the Liberal Initiative (IL). . Council of Europe.

In Braga, during the IL election campaign for the European Championship, Rui Rocha added that the criterion of the party is not nationality, but merit and results.

“And we won’t recognize him [a António Costa] merits after the reign it had in Portugal, with the degradation of public services, with the failure to carry out structural reforms, with a situation of persistent low wages, with a bureaucracy that is also associated with an ongoing trial. All this is the legacy of António Costa, we do not want this legacy to go to the European Union,” he said.

Rui Rocha stressed that in relation to positions, IL “never considers issues of citizenship.”

“This citizenship criterion did not even bring a good experience, Durau Barroso contributed very little to European institutions and Portugal, so I am not assuming anything. The criterion is merit and result,” he repeated.

Former Prime Minister António Costa was heard on Friday by the Ministry of Justice at the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Punishment (DCIAP) without charge as part of Operation Influencer.

According to Rui Rocha, “justice works.”

“When justice works, it is always good (…). He was heard, I am glad that he was heard, he had the opportunity to clarify his view of the facts, and I hope that justice always works for everyone,” said leader of the Liberals.

Operation Influential Man at the time led to the arrest of Vitor Escaria (Chief of Staff to António Costa), Diogo Lacerda Machado (consultant and friend of António Costa), Start Campus administrators Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves, as well as the President of the Chamber of Sines, Nuno Mascarenhas, who were released after judicial questioning.

There are other defendants, including former infrastructure minister João Galamba, former Portuguese Environment Agency president Nuno Lacasta, former PS representative João Thiago Silveira and Start Campus.

The case relates to a data center project in the industrial and logistics area of ​​Sines near the Start Campus, the production of energy from hydrogen in Sines and lithium exploration in the Vila Real area, in Montalegre and Botica.