“It is no coincidence that Luis Montenegro is not up to leadership in the opposition”: PS responds to accusations of the PSD

“It is no coincidence that Luis Montenegro cannot lead the opposition,” PS MP Joao Torres said this Friday in response to the recent allegations by PSD leader António Coste against TAP.

“Luis Montenegro must respect parliament. Dr. António Costa, as prime minister, must respect institutions. He is not entitled to comment on every document that appears in the commission of inquiry. [da TAP]” added Joao Torres.

The deputy general secretary of the PS considered this Friday that the recent political speeches of the SDP chairman testify to desperation, unpreparedness and institutional sense when he resorts to “sabotage maneuvers” in the wake of populism.

This criticism was made by João Torres at a press conference at PS national headquarters in response to accusations by Luis Montenegro in Sintra that Prime Minister António Costa is showing “political cowardice” by remaining silent. regarding controversy over the legal basis for the dismissal of executive presidents and the TAP Board of Directors.

From the point of view of the “number two” of the PS leadership, Luis Montenegro “made absolutely unacceptable statements today, in fact, which is his hallmark in the PPD / PSD leadership, repeatedly not telling the truth in front of the Portuguese.

In the case of the TAP, over the past few days “it has been trying to artificially create a new political fact with a parliamentary commission of inquiry, but it is good to remember that the PS voted for its constitution and that it could even have made it impossible,” he said.

João Torres accused the SDP of seeking “red herring with the apparent aim of covering up the ruinous privatization of TAP” by Passos Coelho’s second chief executive when it was about to fail parliament in 2015.

“The SDP has now become a void of ideas, and Luis Montenegro is in absolute despair because of the unpreparedness that everyone recognizes in him. But despair is a bad adviser, and he must take on the role that belongs to him, the role of the leader of the opposition. “, he said, later adding in counterpoint the “institutional meaning” of Prime Minister António Costa with the political actions of the President of the Social Democrats.

“The prime minister and the government have a responsibility to respect the parliamentary commission of inquiry and not comment on every hearing, every document and every proposal. Luis Montenegro should have the same sense of respect for the Assembly of the Republic and should not use the parliamentary commission of inquiry as a tool for political presentation. Instead of respecting the institutional and historical meaning of the SDP, this party follows the vocabulary, attitudes and behavior of populists,” he added.