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Mário Centeno will continue to lead the Finance portfolio and its eventual departure will never occur before the approval of the supplementary Budget. This was the result of tonight’s meeting in São Bento, between the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, determined the matter and ensured that Centeno will always leave the Government in a “friendly and non-contentious” manner. The departure of Mário Centeno at this time, in a hasty manner, would make it impossible to appoint the current Minister of Finance to the position of Governor of the Banco de Portugal.
At the end of a busy day from a political point of view, Mário Centeno met with António Costa in São Bento. A meeting in which the resignation of the finance minister, demanded by the opposition leader, was ruled out. Mário Centeno will stay at least until the presentation of the supplementary budget, which should take place in June, which would allow the also president of the Eurogroup to conclude the European negotiations on the recovery plan.
The Prime Minister publicly reaffirms his personal and political trust in the Minister of State and Finance, Mário Centeno Statement from the Prime Minister’s Office
After the meeting, which lasted approximately three hours, the Prime Minister’s office issued a statement guaranteeing that the meeting between Costa and Centeno clarified the “problems related to the lack of timely information to the Prime Minister regarding the completion of the loan. ” from the State to the Resolution Fund, which was already foreseen in the State Budget for 2020, which was proposed by the Government and approved by the Assembly of the Republic. “
In a statement distributed at the end of the meeting, it is said that “the Prime Minister and the Minister of State and Finance had a working meeting in preparation for the next Eurogroup meeting to be held on Friday and to define the timetable for preparing the supplementary budget that the government will present to the Assembly of the Republic in June. ”
At this meeting, several issues regarding the implementation of the State loan to the Resolution Fund were clarified.
I publicly reaffirm my personal and political trust in the Minister of State and Finance, Mário Centeno. pic.twitter.com/CGAv3M8sVM– António Costa (@antoniocostapm) May 13, 2020
In this statement, the government also ensures that “Novo Banco’s accounts for 2019, in addition to the supervision of the ECB, were also audited before the granting of this loan.”
The statement then makes further references to the process related to the Novo Banco audit and ends by guaranteeing that “the Prime Minister publicly reaffirms his personal and political trust in the Minister of State and Finance, Mário Centeno.”
From essentials to discomfort
In September, before the legislatures, António Costa warned, about the continuity of Mário Centeno in a future Socialist Executive, “the pass [do Ronaldo das Finanças] not for sale. “However, the objective of the Minister of Finance not to transfer the State to Novo Banco opened an unexpected transfer window. The President of the Republic did not like the minister’s latest move and in his statements this Wednesday He recalled the tugging of the ears given in the Caixa case in early 2017. At the height of the controversy surrounding the appointment of the administration led by António Domingues, Marcelo declared that he accepted the maintenance of the minister in the Government “given the strict national interest , in terms of financial stability. “
Rye says the entire government knew
This Wednesday morning, and under strong attack from the opposition, Centeno said in Parliament that the transfer to the NB “was not carried out without anyone’s knowledge.” “There is no government decision that does not go through the Council of Ministers,” extended the burden of the decision to the government as a whole.
In addition, Mário Centeno recalled that the loan in question “was included in the Budget [do Estado] 2020 “and that the injection into the NB through the Resolution Fund is not without the green light of any audit. And he even said that” it would be a great irresponsibility “not to proceed with the operation.
A week ago, having assured the Left Bloc that there would be no more money for the Central Bank before the bank’s ongoing audit was completed, Costa was forced to publicly apologize to Catarina Martins after Expresso reported that the 850 millions had been transferred the previous day.
But, in an interview with TSF, on Tuesday, the leader of the Eurogroup also presented a less penalizing explanation for Costa and partially contradictory with the statements made by the minister in the parliamentary committee, guaranteeing that there was a “communication failure” with the chief. of the Executive: “[Costa] he did not have the information that the transfer had taken place the previous day. “
Marcelo’s statements
Marcelo was dissatisfied with the government’s latest explanation and, at the end of a visit to Autoeuropa, flanked by António Costa, sided with the Prime Minister in figurative terms as well. Despite beginning by emphasizing that “the Portuguese State does what it has to do” and, therefore, “had to fulfill the commitment” assumed in the sale of the NB to Lone Star, the President argued that the result of the audit should have been expected. he had asked himself a year ago. “If there is, and well, an audit that covers the period up to 2018, it makes a lot of sense what the Prime Minister said in Parliament. It is politically different for the State to take responsibility days before the conclusions of an audit are known or the audit will be full days before the State assumes responsibility, “said Marcelo.
Questioned by journalists on the same subject, António Costa said he had nothing to add to Marcelo’s statements. At press time, Costa was meeting with Mário Centeno in São Bento.
During the afternoon, dissatisfied with the justifications presented by Mário Centeno, Rui Rio even requested the resignation of the Minister of Finance. “If I were prime minister, I would remove him,” he said. The PS replied, accusing Rio of promoting a “conspiracy theory”.
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