IL president calls rehabilitated MP Galamba ‘scapegoat’

The president of the Liberal Initiative (IL) dismissed this Friday as a “scapegoat” for the assistant minister of infrastructure, who was rehabilitated on Wednesday, accusing the government of systematically assigning duties to people of “lesser political importance.”

“It seems clear to me that the socialist government is incapable of taking on its responsibilities at the most important levels and therefore always finds a scapegoat in these matters to crucify it to try and get rid of its responsibilities,” Rui Rocha said. during a visit to Ovibeya.

Frederico Pinheiro was exonerated on Wednesday for “behavior inconsistent with duties and responsibilities” related to his functions in the office of Minister Joao Galamba after he was targeted in an exchange of information published in the media on Thursday about the TAP controversy.

“We have several ministers in this process who have already lied to the Portuguese or commissions of inquiry, and there is someone who has not yet spoken to the Portuguese, this is António Costa,” he criticized.

He continued, “This member of Minister Galamba’s cabinet is the one who asked permission […] invite the CEO of TAP to a meeting. So, the person who asked for permission resigns, and Minister Galamba has nothing to say about it? There are four or five ministers who have already lied in this process and they are all still in office and Prime Minister António Costa has nothing to say to the country about this?

Rui Rocha took the opportunity to recall other similar cases, such as the provision of activist data to the Russian embassy in which Fernando Medina, then mayor of Lisbon, sacrificed a data administrator, or when Antonio Costa, in the TAP process, sacrificed former Secretary of State Hugo Méndez, who had already gone.