Costa Schedules PS Political Commission Meeting for Thursday

Socialist General Secretary António Costa called for Thursday a meeting of the PS Political Commission, the first meeting in the current legislature, the sole purpose of which is to analyze the political situation.

The meeting of the PS Political Commission, scheduled for 21:00, at the national headquarters of this party in Lisbon, takes place at a stage when the government’s proposal for the state budget for 2023 is being discussed in the specialty after its approval. , generally with the votes of an absolute socialist majority and the abstentions of the only deputies of Livre and PAN.

Internally, this meeting of the expanded governing body of the socialists takes place a few days after the elections of the political commissions of the federations of this party, in which succession prevailed in relation to the leading positions of these structures.

According to the results released on Sunday by the PS leadership, the socialist activists elected six new federal leaders in Braga, Bragança, Oeste, Porto, Portalegre and Vila Real, and re-elected the presidents of 13 federations.

But the PS National Political Commission will also take place after a period when several members of the executive branch had doubts about the observance of the incompatibility law, reaching the ministers of infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos, health, Manuel Pizarro, science. , Elvira Fortunato, and Territorial Unity, Ana Abrunosa.

And this coincides with a time when Deputy Secretary of State Prime Minister Miguel Alves is being criticized for his former role as mayor of Caminha.

Several opposition parties, such as the PSD, believe that Miguel Alves is “not qualified enough” to remain in government, either because he failed to clarify what prompted him to give a €300,000 advance to a businessman to build an exhibition center that has yet to start. be built, or because he is accused in lawsuits.

Criticism extended to PS: Ex-Minister Alexandra Leitao deplored the silence and content of the interview given by Miguel Alves to JN and TSF and recalled that in 2016, three secretaries of state left the executive branch of António Costa after defendants were formed.

Daniel Adriao, a member of the PS Political Commission and leading a minority opposed to the PS leadership, has already expressed support for Alexandra Leitao’s position.

“My colleague Alexandra Leitao had the courage, a rare quality in politics, but not uncommon in it, to say out loud what many think and whisper in private conversation, but what they lack the courage to say out loud. It so happened that Alexandra Leitao voiced on social networks a more than elementary conclusion made by any layman: Miguel Alves has no conditions to remain in government.

In an interview he gave to JN and TSF, the prime minister’s deputy secretary of state and former mayor of Caminha, who is under investigation by the State Department, said he was silent because he addressed the first explanations to the Attorney General’s Office. Republic (PGR).

Last week, the prime minister was asked if he retained political confidence in his secretary of state, and he replied: “Of course, otherwise I would not be a member of the government,” he said.