“Disguise the undisguised”. Passos devastates Government and Marcelo in SEF case

Former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho criticized on Friday the actions of the Government and the President of the Republic in the case of the foreign citizen murdered at the SEF facilities, and the reversal of the privatization of TAP.

In homage to the industrialist Alfredo da Silva, founder of CUF, Pedro Passos Coelho left strong criticism of the government’s actions and the president of the republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in the SEF case.

In one of his rare public interventions since leaving political activity, the former prime minister says that all public officials fled responsibilities in the case of the death of Ihor Homeniuk, in March this year, at the SEF facilities at Lisbon airport.

“After months of incomprehensible inaction after the facts came out, with the state authority seriously affected and the trust in public institutions compromised, everything has served to disguise what it does not disguise“Accused the former ruler.

Passos Coelho also noted “greater difficulty admitting serious failures incurred for not having acted promptly with diligence and a sense of defense of the public interest ”.

The former prime minister criticized the “incomprehensible reluctance” of political leaders in “defend the state from the flight of responsibilities of their leaders, who before I prefer to throw the unfair reproach “to the SEF, “That is to say, oriented to its functional emptying instead of the simple and rapid assumption of responsibility.”

Take to Health to give to TAP

The former prime minister also criticized what he says is the “unsustainable lightness of public irresponsibility” of the State, which is preparing, “if authorization is obtained in Brussels, to channel what is lacking in Health, Education, Science or help the economy, to inject into a resized TAP, with thousands of unavoidable layoffs, fewer planes and less activity ”.

However, according to Passos Coelho, the Government will not explain to the country that “it will only do so because reversed a privatization that several governments intended to carry outalthough only one had achieved it“.

This bill “will be supported for many years, for many governments and too many taxpayers that the State does not see today with respect or parsimony ”, concluded the former governor.

The statements by Pedro Passos Colho come two days after the former president of the Republic, Cavaco Silva, also launched harsh criticism of the revocation of the privatization of TAP by the Government of António Costa.

Arrogant challenge and “pure guilt” of the Government

Pedro Passos Coelho also criticized this Friday the position of “guilty” that he considers characterizes the current Government, as well as the “unfortunate cases of evasion of responsibilities” and “lack of humility.”

“It is quite shocking to see politicians and government officials give in to self-praise and arrogant defiance, when not to pure guiltinstead of taking responsibility, both for failures and for real scandals that affect the external reputation of the country and undermine the trust of citizens in its institutions ”, considered Pedro Passos Coelho.

Passos Coelho also pointed out the statements of João Costa, Undersecretary of State and Education, who considered that bad results Portuguese students of the fourth year in the International Mathematics and Science Trends Study (TIMMS) are due to policies of the former Minister of Education, Nuno Crato.

This is “one of the unfortunate cases of escape from responsibilities and the lack of humility to correct policies that, manifestly, were inadequate “, assists the former prime minister in the closing speech of the conference” Globalization in Portuguese: African revolutions and continuities “, to which the Lusa agency had access.

“The fact that the current government I preferred to blame the government that I headed, and that already finished functions more than five years ago, for these results, which focus on the school trajectory of students who began their studies already in the field of reforms presented by the current government team, in addition to being ridiculous, only serves to underline how the Populism and facilitism can fuel the debate. political, ”Passos continued.

This position of the executive headed by the socialist António Costa, criticized by the former prime minister, ends up “disqualifying public policies and imposing a burden on future generations that weakens” the country, accuses Passos Coelho.

On December 8, João Costa, attributed the poor results obtained in the discipline to the educational policies of the former minister of Education. In his opinion, there were changes made by Nuno Crato’s team that generated “greater learning difficulties”.

“Never in the history of our democracy has there been a a fault of this level“Lamented the former Minister of Education, Nuno Crato, who is also a professor of mathematics, regarding the statements published today by the Secretary of State for Education, João Costa.

Nuno Crato considered that “after almost a decade of continuous improvement what led us, in 2015, with the best international results in history, in both PISA and TIMSS, this is a decline that requires very serious analysis. “

The TIMMS – Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, published recently, shows that students worsened their performance in mathematics, having dropped from 541 points on the 2015 tests to 525 points, on a scale of 1 to 1000.