Antonio Pedro Santos / LUSA
Luís Montenegro and Hugo Soares
PSD parliamentary leader says that placing Luís Neves as minister was a “highly praised choice, practically unanimously”.
The parliamentary leader and general secretary of the PSD, Hugo Soares, stated that the former prime minister Passos Coelho gave “a shot at the side” in the criticism made of the appointment of the former director of the PJ, Luis Neves, to Minister of Internal Administration.
“Most of the time, [Passos Coelho] He is an extraordinary political analyst and an extraordinary politician. This time, he was deeply mistaken. It is clearly a side shot. I don’t see any problem with this appointment,” he said, in an interview with Rádio and the daily newspaper Público.
For Hugo Soares, who remembers having been the parliamentary leader of the former PSD president, “if there was highly praised choice, practically unanimously, This was it.”
“The PJ is responsible to the Government. It is a Public Administration body, with particularities, but there is no problem in someone who is a State employee being appointed minister. On the contrary. It is even a good example of valuing its staff”, he continued.
The PSD deputy considered that “the comparison that [Passos Coelho] what happened with the departure of the Government of Mário Centeno, during the time of António Costa, as governor of the Bank of Portugal, is completely next to”, because, “it is one thing for someone who is a State employee to be appointed minister, it is another thing for someone who is a minister of a partisan government to leave the area he supervises to supervise precisely the area he supervised”.
“Pedro Passos Coelho is clearly mistaken in his analysis“, said Hugo Soares, stressing that he holds Passos Coelho in “great regard” because “he was an extraordinary man during the time he governed”.
On Tuesday, Passos Coelho set a serious precedent for Luís Neves’ direct transition from national director of the PJ to Minister of Internal Administration, comparing it to Mário Centeno’s departure from the Government to the Bank of Portugal.
“I know that, certainly, the intention that the Prime Minister had in inviting the former director of the PJ to be Minister of Internal Administration was based on the best of intentions. I have no doubt about that. But the precedent is serious”, he said.
labor law
In , Hugo Soares once again disagreed with Passos Coelho: “It’s completely mistaken” – whether about Luís Neves, or about the possibility of early elections if the labor reform is not approved.
“You are clearly mistaken in the consequence that the Government should withdraw if the labor legislation was not approved. Does anyone in the country who is a political leader or citizen think that this is a situation to trigger elections in the country?”, asked the deputy.
Even so, Hugo Soares does not look at Pedro Passos Coelho as a “critic of the Government” and as a problem for Montenegro: “No, not at all.” In fact, he guaranteed that no one in the PSDB is questioning Montenegro’s leadership.
