Montenegro says Costa’s stance is ‘not skill’ but ‘avoidance of responsibility’

On Monday, the PSD leader thought the prime minister’s response to TAP was “not skill, but escapism,” questioning whether António Costa considered an email from former Secretary of State Hugo Mendez to be exceptionally serious.

Luis Montenegro responded via Twitter to news from Lusa this morning that the Prime Minister was reviewing an email that former Secretary of State Hugo Mendez sent to TAP Executive President about the head of state and claims that he would force him to resign in place.

“You just think it’s very serious?? So, the meeting between the CEO, PS and the government to prepare the hearings, when the minister and the former minister do not tell the truth, the government prepares the answers from TAP, is it all right??, he asked the SDP leader.

For Luis Montenegro, “this is not skill, this is an escape from responsibility.”

António Costa responded to Lusa before leaving for a two-day visit to South Korea after being questioned about the content of a controversial email from the former Secretary of State for Infrastructure that was made public by a parliamentary commission of inquiry. TAP guide.

“Because I haven’t left yet, I’m answering this domestic policy question. Each institution has its own time, and this is the time for the Assembly of the Republic to find out the truth, the whole truth, as I said, the one who hurts hurts,” the head of the executive branch said.

António Costa said he “didn’t know” about the email, “and if he did, he would have made the minister [das Infraestruturas, Pedro Nuno Santos] fire him on the spot.

“This is very serious from the point of view of institutional relations with the President of the Republic and is unacceptable in the relations that the Government should maintain with public companies,” he stressed.

At the TAP Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday, Liberal Initiative MP Bernardo Blanco clashed with Christine Urmier-Widener in an email exchange with then-Secretary of State for Infrastructure Hugo Mendez about a possible change in the date of a flight carrying head of state Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa as a passenger.

In this email he sent to TAP’s executive president, former Secretary of State for Infrastructure Hugo Méndez argued that it was important to keep Marcelo Rebel de Souza’s political support alive given that he was the government’s “major ally” but that could be “a worst nightmare.”

The day after the hearing, the Presidency of the Republic stated in a written note that it had never contacted TAP or any government member to change the return flight from Mozambique in March 2022.