“Painful circumstances can lead us to situations of loss of control, confusion, and even practices or statements that, once the circumstances are over, we realize were wrong,” stated the former Secretary of State under Jorge Coelho, in an opinion piece published today in Correio da Manhã.
The former Secretary of State referred to a claim made on Sunday during an interview on SIC by the Mayor of Lisbon about the causes of the Glória elevator accident, which resulted in 16 deaths and several injuries. The mayor suggested that Jorge Coelho, who has since passed away, resigned as Minister of Social Equipment because he received information in his office indicating the fragility of the Entre-os-Rios bridge before the 2001 accident.
During the interview, Carlos Moedas rejected the comparison, stating that Jorge Coelho’s office had received information suggesting the bridge’s fragility before the accident, while in his case, there was no such indication regarding the Glória elevator.
In the opinion piece, Luís Parreirão emphasized that “unfortunately, the Mayor of Lisbon decided that the best way to address the tragedy that befell the capital was to bring up Jorge Coelho’s conduct from 24 years ago.”
According to Luís Parreirão, “no matter what [Carlos Moedas] does, there is no redemption.”
Luís Parreirão reminded that at the time of the accident, Parliament established an Inquiry Commission, and the Attorney General’s Office conducted a criminal investigation, with no responsibility attributed to Jorge Coelho.
The article also recalled that after the accident, a case was held in the Castelo de Paiva Court, a case to which Jorge Coelho was never summoned.
“As the saying goes, ‘lies have short legs,’ and in this case, they only bring shame to their author,” he writes.
“The then Minister Jorge Coelho, along with myself, who was his Secretary of State, believed that the only course was resignation,” he recounted, emphasizing it was a matter of objective political responsibility.
“That night, no one assumed personal and subjective responsibilities, simply because they didn’t exist, as confirmed by Parliament and the Attorney General’s Office,” he said.
On Tuesday, the current President of the European Council, António Costa, and other former ministers under then Prime Minister António Guterres, accused Carlos Moedas of making “falsehoods” about the late socialist leader Jorge Coelho.
“We, colleagues of Jorge Coelho in António Guterres’ government at the time of the Entre-os-Rios bridge collapse, want to express our outrage at the falsehoods proclaimed by engineer Carlos Moedas regarding what happened in 2001. Jorge Coelho’s conduct was an important contribution to the defense of democracy in the past 25 years,” wrote former ministers of António Guterres in a statement sent to the agency.
Besides former Prime Minister António Costa, the statement was signed by Alberto Martins, Augusto Santos Silva, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, Guilherme Oliveira Martins, Luís Capoulas Santos, and Nuno Severiano Teixeira.
“Since Jorge Coelho cannot defend himself, it is our duty to defend his memory,” they stress.
