The Liberal Initiative demands the resignation of Joao Galamba and clarifications to the Prime Minister

The IL president on Tuesday demanded the resignation of minister Joao Galamba and called on the PS parliamentary leader and the prime minister to comment on a meeting between socialist deputies, government advisers and the TAP CEO in January.

Rui Rocha left these “three challenges” in statements to journalists, in parliament, while at the meeting of the commission of inquiry into the political guardianship of the TAR, the hearings of the executive president of the TAR, Christine Urmier-Widener, were still going on. place.

The leader of the Liberal Initiative claimed that, on the basis of information already received in this commission, he came to the conclusion that “there is a set of very relevant and serious facts” that justify these positions taken by the party.

Rui Rocha referred to a meeting held on January 17, on the eve of Christine Hourmière-Widener’s visit to parliament to provide clarifications on the resignation of former administrator Alexandra Reis, which was attended by deputies and advisers and heads of the cabinet.

The meeting, which, according to the Director General, will take place at the initiative of the Office of the Minister of Infrastructure, who at that time was already Joao Galamba.

Rui Rocha considered that this situation represented an “intolerable and unacceptable” violation of the principle of separation of powers, and supported the resignation of the Minister of Infrastructure.

The IL leader also called on PS parliamentary leader Eurico Brillante Diaz and Prime Minister António Costa to speak out to clarify the situation, considering that “a meeting of this kind, if it takes place, should have been the terms of the clarifications” that the TAP CEO will give the day after parliament .

Rui Rocha stressed that TAP’s executive president mentioned “very strong” political pressure that prevented her from focusing on running the company: “I did not expect such high political pressure when I joined the company,” the CEO used such an expression. TAP TAP, a few minutes before, in a meeting.

To substantiate the accusation that TAP was being used by the government for political purposes, Rui Rocha referred to another point of the ongoing commission in which TAP’s CEO did not deny that an email from former Secretary of State for Infrastructure Hugo Mendez asking for a flight delay from Mozambique , which carried the President of the Republic as a passenger who allegedly needed to stay for two more days in Maputo.

Rui Rocha noted that he did not say whether the President of the Republic would be involved in this issue, just a request was received from the government to change the departure time of the TAP plane, “to please the President of the Republic with the excuse that it is an ally.”

At the meeting, Urmière-Widener said that he made sure it was the president’s request, and that he found that Marcelo Rebelo de Souza would “never ask” for a flight change that would “affect the rest of the passengers”.

Christine Hourmière-Widener is the third figure out of a list of about 60 people to be heard by a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the political oversight of the leadership of the TAR, set up at the initiative of Blok de Esquerdes.

The still-executive chairman of TAP disputed the dismissal and accused the government of “political haste” in her dismissal, according to a defense objection cited by TVI/CNN.