Portuguese parliament approves plan to appoint former minister as bank governor

Members of parliament have approved the report on the hearing on Mário Centeno, a former finance minister, becoming governor of the Bank of Portugal, with the governing Socialist Party voting in favour and both the centre-right Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party abstaining.

The report, which was voted on on Wednesday afternoon in the committee on economy and finance, saw the right-wing People’s Party (CDS-PP), Left Bloc (BE), Liberal Initiative, People-Animals-Nature (PAN) and one Social Democrat member, Álvaro Almeida, vote against.

During the debate that preceded the vote, members of parliament from various parties made it clear that their vote against was not due to the contents of the report, but to the fact that they did not agree with the choice of Centeno to take up that post after having been finance minister. They had pldeged to try to block the long-expected appointment, as detrimental to the central bank’s independence and a potential source of conflicts of interest.

Centeno, a former university professor, has previously worked for the Bank of Portugal, as an economist.