“We are having elections because of this; we will not ignore the elephant in the room, because the name of this is poor governance, governance with little transparency, little ethical demand, information given in installments, always serving the best interest of Luís Montenegro,” stated Rui Tavares, speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the XV Congress of Livre. Tavares commented on recent news regarding the Prime Minister’s bank accounts and the funding of the PSD by a former client of his company.
The spokesperson for Livre expressed that “it is always a bad sign” when politicians accuse the press of disinformation. He questioned if Montenegro acts this way when personal matters are at stake; the same might occur in governance issues.
“In terms of security, wildfires, and international issues. A person who behaves this way, not revealing the whole truth at once, even if it’s bad news, is a person who is not transparent with the Portuguese,” he stated.
Rui Tavares argued that in the upcoming elections on May 18, “Portugal has an opportunity to remove Luís Montenegro from governance, to let him work, but in something other than being Prime Minister,” quipping with the lyrics of the new AD campaign anthem, which calls for “Let Luís work.”
“Because, evidently, if we continue with this Prime Minister, we will keep living this saga, watching this movie constantly, and frankly, it will start to become a very concerning film,” he remarked.
Rui Tavares chose not to comment in detail on the Correio da Manhã’s report regarding the Prime Minister’s bank accounts, preferring to focus on a story revealed last Friday by the weekly Expresso that a former client of Montenegro’s company funded the PSD.
“This is not normal. It’s not normal. Of course, Luís Montenegro will tell us it’s all normal, and surely some other politicians from the PSD and CDS, or even those who might want to join PSD and CDS in Government, will try to make all of this seem normal (…) Livre believes that what should be normal is another level of demand, another level of transparency,” he stated.
Prime Minister and PSD President Luís Montenegro said today that for about two months, he has been confronted with news he considers to be disinformation and manipulation of facts, reiterating that he has not hidden any bank account.
Montenegro specified he was referring to two media outlets in particular, Expresso and Correio da Manhã, which he claimed have “a pattern of presenting news that leads other media, political agents, and the public into being misled and reproducing news headlines that are absolutely false.”
