On Monday, the PSD president accused the government of “trashing” the agreed procedure for determining the location of the future Lisbon airport, stating that he would not be involved in any decision until the independent technical commission gave its opinion.
On the sidelines of a visit to the García de Orta Hospital in Almada (Setubal), Luis Montenegro was asked about statements made by the Secretary of State for Nature and Forests, Joao Paulo Catarino, who, according to the Mirante newspaper, said that the new Lisbon airport “would make much more sense” in area of Santarém and called on PSD to get involved and help protect the site.
“I am not interested in any place, my only interest is that the country makes the best choice and the best option, and that public resources are spent correctly,” the SDP chairman assured.
Montenegro believes that these words “more than a challenge to the leader of the SDP, are a challenge to the political authority of the prime minister”, not least because they came after Minister Joao Galamba said Santarém was “far away” to become the new airport from Lisbon.
The PSD leader stressed that these rulers “signed or agreed” to the Council of Ministers resolution, which established an independent technical commission to carry out a strategic environmental assessment that would compare layout decisions and “allow the political power” to decide, an agreed upon methodology between the government and the Social Democrats about a year ago.
“How do they fight in the square for the land that suits them best, because that is their origin or because these are places where they have interests?” he asked, urging the prime minister to clean up the house.
When asked if the SDP would make any decision for the airport, Montenegro replied that after the committee’s work was over, the party would “analyze and develop a position.”
“Whether this will be agreed with the government, I cannot tell you,” he said, assuring that he would not interfere until the end of the process.
“This is what was missing! (…) I am not interested in this, the PSD is not interested, I find it rather unusual that the Government, which decided to launch this procedure, throws it into the trash, devaluing it and saying that, regardless of the conclusions, the decision has already been made, “he criticized He.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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