Montenegro warns Costa ‘he has to get used to’ choice of Lisbon

This Friday, the PSD president warned António Costa that he should also get used to the choice of the Lisbonites and classified the prime minister’s attitude towards Carlos Moedas as “magnificent” and “arrogant” in case of bad weather.

“In addition, in this controversy with the mayor of Lisbon, the pride and arrogance of the prime minister is marked, but I think that the mayor reacted very well: the prime minister, Dr. António Costa, should also get used to the idea of ​​respecting what the people of Lisbon voted for the project of the engineer Carlos Moedas, the SDP and the parties that accompanied us in these elections,” he said.

Luis Montenegro spoke at the end of his visit to the University of the Interior of Beira in Covilhã, where he went as part of the last day of the “Sentir Portugal” program, which began on Sunday in the Castelo Branco area.

Asked how he positions himself in the dispute between the prime minister and the mayor of Lisbon over the floods in Lisbon, the PSD president criticized the prime minister.

At a time when António Costa’s apology was not yet known, Luis Montenegro began by emphasizing that even before this question, he had indicated that António Costa’s posture is “arrogance, pride, surprise that are justified”.

The leader of the Social Democrats took the opportunity to quote António Costa’s “let them get used to it” statement to argue that the prime minister should get used to it.

“Him [António Costa] is that you have to get used to playing democracy,” he said.

Adding that this “game” provides for the rights of the opposition, he accused António Costa of not respecting these rights and stated that there are already more than 20 members of the government who, due to the actions of the PS, did not go to parliament to clarify their policy.

“This is outrageous. I don’t remember such a level. This is a complete mockery of the absolute majority,” he stressed.

A position that, according to him, is repeated in the dispute between António Costa and Carlos Moedas.

In this question, Luis Montenegro also resorted to the verb “out of habit”, but applied it to António Costa and remembered that Carlos Moedas is now the mayor of Lisbon.

Also recalling that these functions were already performed by António Costa, he considered that the attitude of the prime minister could also be the result of a “problem of conscience” due to the “ineffectiveness” of socialist efforts to solve the problem of sanitation in the territory of Lisbon.

The prime minister apologized for the “unfortunate expression” he used in response to a question about the reasons why he did not contact the mayor of Lisbon after the recent floods.

At a press conference Thursday evening after the European Council meeting in Brussels, the prime minister was asked about the reasons why he withdrew contact with the mayor of Lisbon after the Portuguese capital suffered severe flooding from severe flooding. rains.

Already after that press conference, without a microphone, he spoke to reporters: “You can ask why he [Carlos Moedas] didn’t call me when my house flooded.”

After participating in the presentation of emergency support for the social sector and the solidarity sector in Lisbon, the executive leader recounted the episode.

“Yesterday I have [quinta-feira] unhappy expression, after nearly 14 hours of meeting. I got pissed off to the side, I shouldn’t have done this and I apologize,” he said.

Asked if he ever felt the need to disown Carlos Moedas, the prime minister replied: “I think he himself has already said that the matter is closed.”

Regarding the expression he used in reference to the Liberal Initiative, in an interview with Visão magazine, speaking of “squeaky buns”, António Costa said that it was “colloquial”.