Socialists want parliamentary inquiry commission into PM’s family business  

The leader of the opposition Portuguese Socialist Party has announced that the party will ask for a parliamentary commission of inquiry to be set up following the case of prime minister Luis Montenegro’s family business.

Pedro Nuno Santos was speaking to journalists at the end of a meeting of the Socialist Party (PS) National Secretariat on Monday evening, which was called to discuss the national political situation following the prime minister’s announcement to the country.

The secretary general of the PS considered that many doubts remain and that “the prime minister is actively contributing to the degradation of the institutions of the democratic regime”.

“Our duty is to do everything we can to protect the regime and that means doing everything we can to find out the truth. The PS will present a request to the parliament to set up a parliamentary commission of inquiry,” he announced.

The PS leader said that he doesn’t make this request “with any pleasure” and that he knows “how tough a parliamentary commission of inquiry is”.

“Unfortunately the prime minister gives us no other alternative,” he argued, considering that the commission of inquiry is “the last regimental figure” that the PS has at its disposal to “ensure the right to know the truth”.

Pedro Nuno Santos referred the subject of the commission of inquiry to the request that will enter parliament “in the next few days”, a commission that “will be potestative, without a vote, and chaired by the PS”.

“The prime minister makes a statement to the country and doesn’t make himself available to answer questions, but then he sends five ministers to five television stations. The prime minister has closed off any chance of further clarification and at the moment there is no political mechanism available to us to find out the truth,” he explained.

The Socialist leader pointed out that Luís Montenegro “cannot omit or fail to tell the truth” in a parliamentary commission of inquiry.

“The worst thing that can happen to our democracy is for us to go through this process without finding out everything that happened,” he argued, questioning “how it was possible for a prime minister not to have been in an exclusive position and to have continued to receive payments from companies.”

Pedro Nuno Santos was also asked about the position of PS MEP Francisco Assis, who challenged the party to move forward with a motion of censure if the government doesn’t present a motion of confidence.

“We don’t have that same interpretation that there’s some disagreement. I’ve spoken to Francisco Assis, before and after, and there’s a harmony that doesn’t correspond to the reading that some have made of his statements,” he countered.

If anything “has become crystal clear in recent days”, according to the Socialist leader, it is that “the PS from this point of view is united”.

“It’s a party with a sense of state, with responsibility, which has contributed to political stability. We didn’t create this political crisis. We are not a factor of instability,” he argued, insisting on the need to “protect the regime, the institutions”, which will only happen if we can “find out the truth”.