“Recommending profiles of individuals for roles in public life, civic life, and political life is something done, not every day, but quite regularly. At the time, I was the Deputy Secretary-General of the PS, and it was a very common practice in the course of duties, that is, recommending profiles of individuals for roles,” said José Luís Carneiro.
Under the title “The Recommendations of José Luís Carneiro and Manuel Pizarro,” the magazine Sábado today reveals wiretaps conducted as part of Operation Influencer, in which it is described that José Luís Carneiro allegedly requested a job from the then Minister of Environment, Matos Fernandes, for the former deputy and former mayor of Aljustrel, Nelson Brito.
When questioned about whether he asked for a favor, the PS Secretary-General responded: “No, certainly not”.
Regarding being overheard, the leader of the socialists, speaking to journalists at the Hospital de São João in Porto, where he visited the President of the Republic who was hospitalized after a hernia operation, played down the matter.
“I didn’t know, but I also don’t see any particular gravity in it,” he said.
