The president of the Madeira Government (PSD/CDS-PP), Miguel Albuquerque, said today that the position of the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba, is “untenable” and argued that the Prime Minister “has to take the reins of the situation.
“At this moment, it is not the opposition that is jeopardizing political stability so that the [PS] Government can govern. It is the members of the Government who are putting the stability of the Government in question, who are in a complete competition and autophagy, which is leading to the discrediting of democracy itself,” he said.
Miguel Albuquerque was speaking to journalists in Funchal, where he watched the float parade of the Flower Festival, in a comment on the latest events related to the Ministry of Infrastructure and the TAP inquiry commission, which involved the exoneration of Frederico Pinheiro, deputy to Minister João Galamba.
“This disgrace that is happening is, in fact, bad for democratic institutions, for the credibility of the regime, and, at this moment, I think that the minister’s position is untenable,” said Miguel Albuquerque.
The head of the Madeiran executive believes that the prime minister, António Costa, “has to put his house in order” and “take the reins of the situation,” because “the country can’t always be in elections.
“The degeneration that is happening, from my point of view, has only one principle, which is to confuse state issues with party issues, to use the state apparatus as if it were their [the PS’s] property,” he said, stressing that these circumstances lead to the “weakening of a government that had all the conditions to govern.”
Miguel Albuquerque classified the TAP situation as “a sad soap opera”, warning that it involves taxpayers’ money.
“The prime minister has to put his house in order, because it’s not the opposition, it’s not the President of the Republic, it’s not the fellow citizens who are degenerating the government,” he reinforced.
In a press conference on Saturday, the Minister of Infrastructures considered that he had “all the conditions” to be in the Government, denied contradictions and stressed that the facts show that there was cooperation with the TAP inquiry commission.
João Galamba said that he informed TAP’s former CEO, Christine Ourmières-Widener, about the preparatory meeting requested by the PS and that he could participate if he wanted, having received confirmation of interest later, an attendance to which he did not object.
The governor also said that he reported to the Deputy Secretary of State of the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Justice the theft of a computer by the exonerated deputy Frederico Pinheiro, having been told that he should report it to SIS and to the PJ.
The exonerated deputy accused the Ministry of Infrastructure of wanting to omit information to the TAP inquiry commission about the “preparatory meeting” with the former CEO.
