Cotrim says Medina will be Costa’s “great successor” because he “never knows anything”.

The outgoing IL president joked this Saturday that Fernando Medina would be Antonio Costa’s “great successor” at the head of the PS, accusing the minister of “never knowing anything”.

“He never knows anything, he is always distracted. He did not know about the data on Ukrainian dissidents sent to the Russian embassy, ​​he did not know about the compensations paid to the TAP. And now he does not know how the former mayor of the PS from Castelo Branco was the only one who could control the Lisbon trials,” accused João Cotrim Figueiredo in the opening speech of the 7th IL Congress.

“In that respect, at least, he would be a great successor to António Costa, who is also an expert at shaking water off his coat,” he joked.

Cotrim Figueiredo stated that IL “made a difference in the TAP nationalization dossier”, arguing that it was the party with a clear position on the issue from the beginning regarding the airline’s privatization.

“The government already admits that the money will not be returned. Minister Pedro Nuno Santos, who dragged us into this mess, has already left with his tail between his legs (I don’t know if the legs are shaking like German bankers) Antonio Costa, with an even greater pirouette, now admits that 100% privatized TAP, and TAP’s executives are “going wild, hiring friends and firing administrators for huge compensation,” he criticized.

The leader defended that the IL “was the only party to systematically put economic growth at the top of the agenda” and emphasized its role in legislative “dossiers” such as the medically assisted death that IL contributed to with the bill – – the diploma sent by the President of the Republic to the Constitutional Court this month.

“On this issue, without the ML there would be no guarantee of access to palliative care prior to the start of the process, nor protection of the freedom of choice of the health professionals involved. The liberal initiative has changed the situation,” he stressed. .

According to Cotrim de Figueiredo, the party said it was “present” in the development of this project “in defense of the rights of the individual, which the state has no right to restrict.”

Regarding the revision of the constitution, Cotrim de Figueiredo stated that the party must be on the alert to “continue to make changes in the constitutional review process, which has now begun at an unfortunate time at the initiative of Chega and in which PS and PSD decided to get down to business for the sole reason that that they want to provide constitutional coverage for the detention of infected people and the misuse of metadata for criminal investigation purposes.”

“The parties of the system agree to limit our fundamental freedoms without the involvement of parliament, and in some cases even without the involvement of the courts. This is unacceptable, and the Liberal Initiative will also be important here,” he stressed.

João Cotrim Figueiredo announced last October, mid-term, that he would not run for re-election in an early election, to surprise in the liberal ranks, and then announced his almost immediate support for one of the three leadership candidates, Rui Rocha.