Former PSD President Rui Rio on Tuesday accused the prime minister of lying about his reasons for not supporting a change in law that would give municipalities a veto over the location of a future airport.
In a post on a social network
“I didn’t say I didn’t support changing the law because the SDP didn’t understand the new airport. I said I would never do it to make a specific situation viable. The law should be general and abstract,” he wrote. former leader of the Social Democrats, who led the party from March 2018 to July last year.
In an interview on Monday evening, António Costa accused the PSD of saying “everything and the opposite” regarding the future of Lisbon airport, stressing that he was “the first prime minister” to try to accept the decision of his predecessor Pedro Passos Coelho regarding the decision to locate in Montijo.
“When the two municipalities decided that they did not agree with this decision and the law needed to be changed, Dr. Rui Rio said: “I am not in a position to change the law because there are big doubts within the PSD.” about where this place is.” And now we have reached the elections,” said António Costa.
“Fortunately, Dr. Luis Montenegro has stated that he does not intend to reopen the debate and has agreed to jointly develop a methodology,” the prime minister added, referring to the agreement between the government and the PSD signed last summer regarding the methodology for choosing the site.
In March 2021, Rui Rio expressed support for revising legislation so that one municipality could not “veto” the location of a national project such as the new Lisbon airport, but only after the government accepted that all hypotheses about the location of the future airport would again end up ” on the table,” and not only in Montijo.
“So if it is within this framework that the government intends to change the law, we will agree to change that law. What we didn’t agree with was changing the law to benefit a particular project, that would be case by case. Once all the projects are open again to see which one is best, it is time to rethink the law,” said Ruy Rio.
However, the change in law was only approved in July of this year.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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