The former Minister of Finance Mário Centeno considered that the Health sector needed changes in the way the resources were managed and intended to exercise functions as a Minister of State or “a similar title”. Nevertheless, the Covid-19 pandemic would eventually render any attempt at reform unfeasible.
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21/09/2026
by
News to Minutes
O former Minister of Finance, Mário Centeno, proposed, after the legislative elections of 2019, to the then Prime Minister António Costa, to leave the finance portfolio for a “transverse paper” that would allow him to promote changes in the management of Health.
The former ruler considered that the health sector needed changes in the way resources were managed and intended to exercise functions as Minister of State or “a similar title”.
The revelation is now made in the book “Certain Accounts”, which Mário Centeno will present next Friday, day 25, reveals the newspaper Public, which today discloses two excerpts of the publication.
The former minister's intention would be to remain in the government until the summer of 2020, when the position of governor of Banco de Portugal was vacant, although this detail is not mentioned in the book.
Centennial seemed to have a well-defined plan and even had a proposal for his successor: John Leo. However, although he heard the proposal, António Costa did not respond – although, as the book points out, even if he had accepted, Centeno’s ideas of reform would have the ‘legs cut off’ by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The book also reveals that between the victory of the PS in the legislative of October 2019 and the presentation of the composition of the new Government to the President of the Republic, Centeno and Costa talked about the future of the now former governor of Banco de Portugal.
Mário Centeno intended to remain in the government until the following summer, the mandate at the head of the Eurogroup, but wanted to leave the finance portfolio.
“ It was a theme that I had put on the table and that, obviously, I wish it had been discussed with me, at least to go to the game. It wasn't“, reveals Mario Centeno.
It is recalled that, after four years ahead of the Ministry of Finance, Mário Centeno took office again in October 2019 and led the preparation of the State Budget for 2020. A few months later, the pandemic would eventually render any attempt to reform health management unfeasible.