The Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, addressed the transit of American planes through the Lajes Base in the Azores on Friday.
“I regret that there was a procedural error at the beginning when the issue was raised with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is now identified. There is nothing more to say about it,” he stated to journalists in Nazaré, Leiria district.
“Everything else was perfectly normal procedure. I don’t understand these radical reactions demanding ministers’ resignations. It would be absurd for the government to face normal decisions with this kind of attitude,” he commented, responding to criticisms and demands for resignation from other parties. Montenegro added: “We are in an electoral campaign, maybe this is also related to that.”
Further questions from journalists addressed potential communication failures within the government. “These were not exactly communication failures since the information that needed to be conveyed between ministries happened normally. There was a procedure at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that did not reach the minister in the time it was necessary for it to happen. This has been acknowledged,” he explained.
The Prime Minister assured that the head of Portuguese diplomacy was “reflecting” on the change of internal procedures to prevent such situations from happening again. Regarding what kind of situations were being referred to, he stated: “The only situation that should not have happened was there being a first piece of information that was not completely accurate, to a newspaper that happened not to be Portuguese [El País].”
Political parties are calling for resignations and hearings.
Yesterday, Rui Tavares, leader of Livre, suggested the resignation of Melo, questioning how the official “can continue in his position.”
Today, the Bloco accused Melo of authorizing the transit of aircraft and military equipment “to be used in the genocide of the Palestinian people,” notably “without the Foreign Minister’s consent.”
The Socialist Party and the Portuguese Communist Party announced on Friday that they would request hearings with ministers Nuno Melo and Paulo Rangel to explain the stopover of F-35 jets sold by the U.S. to Israel, destined for Tel Aviv, through the Azorean base.
[Updated at 14:10]
