IL raises suspicions about “which Luís Neves knows about the Government”

A IL today insisted on the resignation of the Minister of Internal Administration, considering that “no one believes” the ruler and raising suspicions about what it is “that Luís Neves knows about the Government” to remain in office.

In the debate on political statements in Parliament, liberal Rui Rocha insisted on the criticisms he has made to the continuity of Luís Neves as Minister of Internal Administration, stating that, in the face of the new polemics known in recent days, which culminated in the resignation of the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Internal Administration (MAI), “it will not be long before” it is necessary to assess the creation of a new parliamentary committee of inquiry.

He recalled that today a commission of inquiry on Neves' activities in charge of the Judiciary Police took place and considered that a new committee on the period as minister is already possible.

Rui Rocha said that it is possible to point out already the “prepotency” and the posture of “I can, want and command as absolute maximum” in the performance of Luís Neves, as well as the “double ethical standard” of “maximum demand for others and maximum compliance for their own behaviors”.

He also accused the minister of creating a “closed group of faithful to those who require canine fidelity in exchange for promotion, protection and favor” and of acting with an “increasing propensity to use lie, omission and opacity”.

The MP also criticized the PS, accusing the socialists of protecting Luís Neves and considering that the party leader, José Luís Carneiro, only “shocked in his drowsiness” after being known the “balbúrdia in the General Secretariat of the MAI”, with the departure of Ricardo Carrilho.

“ Even for a socialist who is inspired by a political pattern as low as that of Pedro Sánchez, this has reached the limit. Even the creator PS no longer defends the creature Luís Neves ", he shot, considering that "only the host PSD puts his hand under him".

For Rui Rocha, even if all the accusations made by Ricardo Carrilho are not true, the country “has a problem in it”, because that means that there is a “minister so unbeliefed, so depleted in his political capacity, so undermined in his authority, that no one believes in him anymore”.

“ How is it possible that Luís Neves is still Minister of Internal Administration? [...] The only rational answer is the one that says that, in the assessment of the Prime Minister, the cost of firing Luís Neves is higher than that of keeping him in the Government”, he said, later asked “what does Luís Neves know about the Government of Portugal that prevents making the only correct decision in this matter”.

In the requests for clarification to this intervention, Aquida joined the suspicions about Luís Neves, but changing the focus, with parliamentary leader Pedro Pinto questioning “what Luís Neves will know to be so afraid of the PS in relation to the commission of inquiry”.

Socialist André Pinotes Batista said that “it is not by chance” that Rui Rocha “is the liberal most wanted by the Arrivo” – liberal was applauded in parts of his speeches by some members of the bench led by Pedro Pinto – and that the deputy of the IL “did not leave behind by credits of this fame”, regretting that the intervention has mentioned conclusions on a subject that Parliament is still going to address.

“Luís Neves is Minister of this Republic because Prime Minister Luís Montenegro understands it,” he stressed, rejecting the accusation that the PS is defending the minister.

António Rodrigues, from PSD, criticized Rui Rocha for the terms used to speak of Luís Neves, considering that “calling a minister of the Republic ‘creature’” is not the “most correct term to address” a ruler and asking the liberal deputy “a little more hombrity”.