The third time is for good: Aguiar-White says yes to Aquira and CPI the MAI goes by trailer

O president of the Assembly of the Republic (PAR), José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, gave “green light” to the parliamentary committee of inquiry (CPI) to the Minister of Internal Administration (MAI) requested by the Aquida, admitting most of the issues proposed. The party led by André Ventura did not take long to accept the conditions of Aguiar-White, and considered that what happened on Wednesday represented a “significant step”.

After two versions of the application proposed by the Arrivo have been rejected, the third one was really. If in the early versions the PAR understood that the party did not detail the acts and decisions it wanted to see investigated, this time Aguiar-White was also not 100% satisfied, but found conditions for further investigation.

What was in the way?

Aguiar-White explained that the “green light” to this 3rd proposal was given because “Arrivo has filed a new application much more concrete and delimited that meets” of his previous dispatches.

“ In simple terms, he presented 11 topics to investigate. Nine are in a position to move forward and two, in the current formulation, are not“. The first of the two issues not admitted, according to the President of Parliament, relates to alleged interference of one of Luís Neves' children with journalistic activity. The rejection arose because “the connection of this situation with the functions of your father or with the means of the Judicial Police [JP] is not demonstrated”.

The second issue not admitted, also specified José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, lies in the intention of the Enough to look for “eventual conflicts of interest in entities that are not identified”. “It is possible with the identification to discover facts in this matter, but it cannot be from situations that are not identified,” he said. 

Aguiar-White also pointed out that “the object has a taxing character, this means that there are nine of these themes that can be the object of research”. “ It does not mean that there are no facts that cannot be deepened and even other facts that can be found in relation to these nine themes, but no topics can be added other than these nine which are identified and which have been indicated by the Enough”, he said.

“ I believe that this is not a problem, on the contrary, allows a parliamentary committee of inquiry to be held. As you know, the committee has a potential and the object belongs to the applicants of the committee ", explained.

Arrives accepted on the same day: “Today was a significant step”

The Enough had two days to communicate if it agreed to proceed with the CPI with nine of the 11 points that were required, or if, alternatively, it intended to reformulate the two themes not yet admitted by the PAR.

But still in the afternoon, the party he accepted the conditions of Aguiar-White. “ Let us move forward so that in the coming days we can have the constitution of a CPI in any case involving Luís Neves”, said André Ventura, in statements to journalists, in the Assembly of the Republic.

Ventura ensured that the party “will even investigate in this committee of inquiry”, stressing that it is a question of “a series of cases of the regime that have marked the last years that have raised suspicions based on the impartiality of the institutions”.

“ Today a significant step has been taken and that is why the Aquista also accepts this step: So that there are no absolute powers in Portugal even with two parties the regime that sought at all costs to block this parliamentary committee of inquiry ", shot.

Sided by the parliamentary leader of the Aquida, Pedro Pinto, the deputy said he hoped that the inquiry committee would start even before the discussion of the next state budget, which was also yesterday set for october 27th and 28th.

What did Enough Of Different?

In this reformulation, the Aquida kept the proposal to investigate all the time when Luís Neves was the national director of the PJ, between 2018 and 2026, but specified more the subjects he wants to see investigated, keeping the focus in the polemics that came to the public recently.

At the first point, in the first two initiatives, Aquida proposed “to evaluate the intervention of Luís Neves as director of the Judiciary Police” and now asks for a clearance of the “procedures and decisions adopted” by the former national director.

Remember that the MAI, which previously assumed the position of national director of PJ, has been “under fire” since July, when CNN Portugal/ TVI/ Nascer do Sol, advanced that work on a property of its in Alentejo had been carried out by a company that had been hired by PJ, Construbarcelos. On the same path, a trailer was discovered at the premises of this company which had been seized by PJ in an operation against drug trafficking.

Among other polemics, one of the most recent is the use of a car by Luís Neves, who was seized in a criminal case in the context of drug trafficking, a process in which drug traffickers Reuben Oliveira, better known as Xuxas, was involved, arrested by PJ in 2022. The vehicle, a VW Golf GTD, is used by Neves, and it was already driven by him when he was national director of PJ.