Chega asks Santos Silva to supervise parliamentary benches

Chegi’s leader said this Friday that he will meet the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva on the 20th, and that he intends to ask for an inspection of the “preparatory meetings” of the parliamentary benches.

“After this meeting, which we consider extremely serious and which should have consequences of a different nature, Chega asked the President of the Assembly of the Republic for an urgent meeting, the meeting, which was granted and scheduled for next week, on the 20th of Chega will ask and propose to the Chairman of the Assembly Republic to verify what has happened in the past with this type of preparatory meeting and that it does not allow this type of meeting to continue or could happen again,” he said.

André Ventura’s statements to journalists followed a controversy surrounding a preparatory meeting between socialist MPs, members of the executive branch and then-TAR executive president Christine Urmier-Widener ahead of parliamentary hearings. The January meeting was attended by Socialist MP Carlos Pereira, who was also a member of the parliamentary inquiry into the airline’s management until Thursday evening.

“I have already said that these meetings are unacceptable and that they should not be repeated. Therefore, what we are seeing at the moment is a “failure of guilt” within the Socialist Party (PS) or an incurable discrepancy between what the PS parliamentary bench and what the President of the Assembly of the Republic thinks,” he said.

André Ventura defended that Santos Silva was instructing socialist deputies that this kind of preparatory meeting should not be repeated in the future.

Regarding the departure of Carlos Pereira from the TAP commission of inquiry, which the socialist justified this Friday with the intention to give the “necessary calm” in the face of what he considered the “atmosphere of suspicion” around him, André Ventura assured that the news in the newspaper Correio da Manhã about the alleged write-off of the debt of Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) to the PS MP is “particularly troubling” because it goes beyond the political dimension.

“They go beyond what is mere political management and into the realm of what is suspicion of undue favoritism, not to mention corruption, in a case in which a deputy who was rapporteur for the commission of inquiry on the recapitalization of Caixa was. at the same time, the beneficiary appears to be restructuring or debt forgiveness.

President Chega said he would ask parliamentary groups to “re-evaluate” the CGD recapitalization commission of inquiry report to see if there is “any factor that could indicate any favoritism” for Carlos Pereira.

Andre Ventura also added that a criminal investigation should be opened into the matter and that he would question the Transparency Commission regarding “the possibility that an MP in these circumstances could be a rapporteur” in the Commission of Inquiry.

“The mere suspicion that this might happen should and deserves that all parliamentary groups urgently consider the Caixa report for one reason: this report completely removed any responsibility from Caixa,” he concluded.

Although Carlos Pereira denied that his departure was related to the case and argued that it was “a lie that there was a pardon”, favor or incompatibility, President Chega emphasized that the socialist deputy’s position as guarantor of the company makes him “as responsible for debt as owner of debt.

“The guarantor is indebted with his assets and therefore his relationship with debt is much stronger than other forms of guarantee,” he explained, continuing: “Carlos Pereira said that since 2016 he tried to take steps with CGD and there was never a good reaction , and suddenly it led to a favorable outcome. I think Carlos Pereira wanted to ease the pressure, but ended up doing the exact opposite: he created an even bigger cloud of suspicion.”

For André Ventura, the departure of Carlos Pereira from the TAP commission of inquiry “was a decision that had to be made, and which should have been made immediately after the presence became known” of the deputy in a preparatory meeting with the executive president of TAP. .