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In the wake of approval, in a final global vote, of the State Budgets for 2021, Costa appeared before journalists together with the Minister of Finance, João Leão, and the Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Duarte Cordeiro.
The head of the Government used a harsh vocabulary to repudiate, in particular, the position assumed by the PSD against the proposal of the Left Bloc with a view to canceling the transfer to Novo Banco, conditioning it to a prior audit by the Court of Justice. Accounts.
“In no case will the external credibility of the country be questioned. Therefore, the fight continues ”, affirmed António Costa.
“We will do everything so that those who wanted to play with fire do not burn the country”, launched the Prime Minister, who also promised to do everything possible to respect “the legality imposed by the Constitution and imposed by the Budgetary Framework Law in the sense that the Budget records all the contractual obligations of the Portuguese State.”
What António Costa left unclear at this stage was the detail of the strategy that the Executive will want to implement.
“I will not be here to discuss legal technicalities and there is only one thing that I say: a signed contract is a contract that must be fulfilled, a law that exists is a law that must be respected and legality will surely be guaranteed in a country that is honored to be. a rule of law ”, he emphasized.
Portugal, António Costa would insist, “is not a country in which the Constitution, laws and contracts are broken for political convenience.”.
“I assure everyone, whether they are those who listen to us in Portugal or those who listen to us internationally, that the Portuguese State is a State of law, it is a State that respects the laws and the contracts it signs. As for details, with time we will know ”, summed up the government official.
“We are here to defend taxpayers”
For his part, the PSD leader, who spoke to journalists after the prime minister, argued that voted “in line with what he always said: that the Government, before any transfer to the Novo Banco, must go to Parliament to explain the reasons, preferably with an independent audit from the Court of Accounts on the table”.
Rui Rio emphasized the idea that “contracts have two faces.”
“The Portuguese State has to comply, but we have to be sure that on the other hand they are also complying. The contracts have two sides and we are here to defend the Portuguese taxpayers ”, stressed the president of the Social Democrats.
The PSD sealed this Thursday, in plenary session, the vote in favor, specifically, of the budget proposal of the Block that stops the transfer of 476 million euros from the Resolution Fund to the banks that resulted from the collapse of BES.
Rio also sought to reject the association of the orange vote with “reputational damage.”
“There could be reputational damage if, with the votes I have, I say that not a penny will go to the New Bank for us, but that’s not what I’m saying. For me, the state does it, while others do it too ”.He came back and later accused the Socialists of trying to create “an artificial crisis.”
“Now Novo Banco is selling assets one after another, at a loss, who knows who. There is a moment when you have to say enough, ”Rui Rio rose.
“We need the audit to move quickly and what should happen is that Novo Banco will claim the money there for an extra month and then we’ll see, with the guarantee that no more money will be spent there without a budget change here.” He continued, alluding to an eventual amending budget that the PSD will be open to making feasible.
Asked about a possible default by the banking institution, Rio referred to the scenario of a “settlement of accounts” between the parties, or a liability to be reverted to the Resolution Fund.
“It could be that, if so, we have a Public Ministry that does not answer me that there is nothing serious, but that it will investigate.he added.
Before pointing out the fact that the PCP, “with whom [os socialistas] articulated the entire Budget ”, after having voted in favor of BE’s proposal, the PSD leader considered that“ if the Government wants to go to a legal battle, it has every right ”.
“I don’t care who the proposal is: when it comes to Chega they say I’m a fascist, when it’s BE, maybe I’m a communist, but I’m going for the fairness of the proposals,” he concluded.
The proposal of the Left Bloc was approved with votes in favor of PSD, PCP, PEV and Joacine Katar Moreira, unregistered deputy. PS, Liberal Initiative, voted against the unregistered deputy Cristina Rodrigues, while CDS-PP, PAN and Chega chose to abstain.
Costa contacts European Central Bank
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister announced on Twitter that he has already contacted the president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, regarding this dossier.
#Portugal it is a rule of law that meets its contractual obligations. I spoke with the President of the ECB, @Lagarde, to whom I guaranteed the scrupulous fulfillment of the commitments assumed in relation to the sale of Novo Banco. pic.twitter.com/Noas8HjOr7
– António Costa (@antoniocostapm) November 26, 2020
“Portugal is a rule of law that complies with its contractual obligations”, reiterated António Costa in a cheep also reproduced in English, adding that he guaranteed Lagarde “scrupulous compliance with the commitments assumed in connection with the sale of Novo Banco.”
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