The Treasury secretary acknowledged this Friday that the appointment process for former Secretary of State for the Treasury Alexandra Reis “obviously didn’t go well” and that “I wish the country were spared this wear and tear.”
At the Parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee hearing on the case of TAR and Alexandra Reis, held at the request of the PSD, Liberal Initiative MP Carla Castro asked Fernando Medina if, with the elements he now has, “has the humility to admit that Something went wrong in the process.”
“Obviously, I’m guessing that things clearly didn’t go well with the appointment process,” Fernando Medina replied.
The official acknowledged that “it is inappropriate to nominate and nominate a member of the government who then, a few weeks after his nomination, finds out that, due to circumstances that were not known at the time of his proposal for the nomination, his political authority is at stake.”
“It is clear that if I could have avoided this, I would have avoided it,” he stressed.
Asking himself if he knew what he knows this Friday if he would nominate Alexandra Reis, Medina replied, “No, I wouldn’t.”
“But I didn’t have this information at the time I made this offer, and the information I had was not only reliable information about the curriculum, reliable information about academic performance (…) and reliable information not only about your last training program, but also in his close training program, which was with two state-owned companies,” he repeated.
The finance minister emphasized that Alexandra Reis “was not a person who was very distant, distant, about whom no elements were known”, stressing that the former secretary of state of the treasury “qualifies the conditions” required for the position.
“Obviously things didn’t go well, obviously I would like the country to be spared this wear and tear and this situation that the government is in too,” repeated Fernando Medina.
And he added: “I can only say that at that time I did not have information that could make me avoid the outcome that became inevitable for me to make this decision, which was also not easy to take, namely to ask someone . submit her resignation within a few weeks of being invited to take up her duties.”
In this speech, Medina also wanted to “make it clear” that the assessment requested by the Inspector General of Finance (IGF) is “the indemnification process that was awarded by the company” to Alexandra Reis.
“In itself, this is not self-attributed, let it be clear,” he stressed.
Responding to Carla Castro about TAP’s situation, Medina stressed that the airline “significantly exceeded its performance targets” in terms of restructuring.
“The company, fortunately for the country and fortunately for the company, has achieved more positive results well ahead of the recovery plan,” he said.
In this hearing, PS accused PSD of trying to make a “political number” by subpoenaing the Minister of Finance in parliament at a time when the government is awaiting a response from IGF and CMVM to provide further clarification on the case. a controversy in which Alexandra Reis participated.
Noting that no information emerged during the hearing that was not previously known, PS MP Carlos Pereira accused PSD MPs of not wanting to wait for a “truthful assessment” to find out “what happened.”
“They didn’t want it because by the time that score exists, you can no longer do what you did today, that rhapsody you did today in this audition,” he said.
At the final stage of the hearings, SDP MP Paulo Ríos de Oliveira felt that Medina entered the “Ministry of Finance with a little original sin” because “Portugal is used to economists dressing up as finance politicians and this time she had a politician, dressed like an economist.”
At the end of the hearing, responding to Paulo Ríos de Oliveira, Medina emphasized that the fact that the Social Democrat MP invoked “original sin” showed that the SDP “never internalized the fact” that he himself was appointed minister. Finance, adding that “indigestion is getting worse.”
“I understand you well, because in fact the problem that you have with the Minister of Finance – and with the government in the field of finance, in particular – is that we are achieving results that you have never achieved in your administration. ,” he said.
Medina defended that the government “at every moment of time” responds with “demand and rigor to the needs of the country”.
“And when we look at the PSD proposals at each of these moments, we see a full ball, a ball full of vanity, proclamations, rhetoric and completely empty in the proposed solutions,” he criticized.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Sandra Hansen, a news website Author and Reporter for 24 News Reporters. I have over 7 years of experience in the journalism field, with an extensive background in politics and political science. My passion is to tell stories that are important to people around the globe and to engage readers with compelling content.