The President of the Republic said on Tuesday that he refuses to accept requests from TAP officials, as well as any contacts, so as not to interfere in any way with the ongoing parliamentary inquiry process in Parliament.
In response to reporters at the former Royal Arena near the Belém Palace in Lisbon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa declined to comment on issues covered by the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the Political Protection of the TAP leadership, including the work of news services.
The head of state said that this is “one of the sensitive issues that is being considered by the parliamentary commission of inquiry” and it is “a matter in which parliament has fundamental powers of control and oversight.”
“Anything the President of the Republic could say would be noise, and I avoided it. In particular, in this case, I avoided this noise, for example, by not receiving company officials who asked me to receive, or by not accepting contacts of any nature that were a way of interfering, directly or indirectly, in the process that is in parliament, ”- he added.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa emphasized that the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the political tutelage of TAP’s governance “is a process that is in parliament, it belongs to parliament.”
“Parliament must lead it in its gentle ways. And we are watching, we, the sovereign bodies, we, the Portuguese, are closely following what is happening, but the sovereign bodies, other than the parliament, should not interfere in the life of the parliament, ”he defended.