The President of the PSD wrote a letter to the Prime Minister insisting on the resignation of the General Secretary of the Information System of the Portuguese Republic and warning that if this does not happen, the leadership of the “secret” will lose the confidence of the Social Democrats.
“If the resignation does not happen, I want Your Excellency to know that an unprecedented fact will happen in the entire Portuguese democracy: the leadership of the SIRP will no longer enjoy the confidence of the largest opposition party. I hope that SIRP will continue to serve the state, but will only do so with the approval and trust of the government,” writes Luis Montenegro in a letter that Lusa had access to.
In a letter dated Thursday, the content of which was brought to the attention of the President of the Republic, Montenegro expects the Social Democrats to “propose over time to change the system of parliamentary oversight” of news services “to make it more transparent and efficient.”
The social democratic leader insists on the “need to replace the Secretary General of the SIRP”, Graça Ambassador Mira Gomes, arguing that “despite the abuses by the government demanding in practice the intervention of the SIRP” in the restoration of the computer seized from the Ministry of Infrastructures on the night of April 26 , “under no circumstances should this service have honored such a request.”
“SIRP/SIS intervention does not take place, it does not make sense, it has no legal basis,” and for this reason, “services should have refrained from interfering,” he argues.
However, “by doing the opposite, the necessary consequences cannot but come,” and therefore the chairman of the SDP insists on the resignation of “the person most responsible for information services: the general secretary of the SIRP.”
Speaking to António Coste, Montenegro writes: “You can insist that everything stay the same. This is even more likely given the promiscuity that in this case existed between the government and the security services. which the heads of these services simultaneously enjoy the confidence of the government and the main opposition party.
According to the President of the SDP, “there has been an abuse of power in the government’s relations with the information services, requiring in practice to intervene in the issue of a computer used by a former adviser to the Minister of Infrastructure.”
“The government has not provided a legal basis for this request. Theft is the expression used by Your Excellency, is a matter that requires the intervention of the police, and not the intervention of a person who does not have such competence. Your Excellency knows well that this is so. He knows it as a prime minister and he knows it as a lawyer,” Montenegro claims.
According to the Social Democrats, “the general argument that the equipment contained confidential and secret information does not apply, because if it did, then the situation was already abnormal before April 26, because the computer was embezzled and was in someone’s possession.” not accredited for this purpose.”
The PSD assures that it will take “every possible step to stricter scrutiny of the actions of the information services” so that “this offensive and misconduct does not become the norm in the life of the government, recognizing that this is no longer the case.” before”.
The Social Democrat leader also believes that parliamentary hearings this week of Deputy Secretary of State Prime Minister António Mendons Mendez “made it clear” that Infrastructure Minister João Galamba “lacked the truth” to the TAP parliamentary research committee.
“Without prejudice to the investigation that this may have in mind in a court of law, there is a political and ethical issue to which Your Excellency should pay special attention: the need to replace your minister because he behaved unacceptably on the part of the ruler in a democratic constitutional state. This is not a trivial contradiction. This is rather a deliberate lie, aggravated by the fact that it was allowed in the parliamentary investigative body,” he accuses.
Montenegro also recalls that António Costa “was jointly and severally responsible for all the actions of this minister when he decided not to accept his resignation and the corresponding institutional confrontation with the President of the Republic.”
The controversy involving the security services is related to the dismissal of the former assistant minister of infrastructure on the night of April 26 and is linked to Federico Pinheiro’s allegations of physical abuse in this ministry and the alleged theft of a laptop computer, which is under investigation by the Ministry of Health.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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