In the parliamentary Defense Committee, MPs, with the abstention of the PSD, approved requests from Chega and the PS to urgently hear from the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General João Cartaxo Alves, regarding this branch’s support for emergency medical air transport with INEM.
The proposal to hear from the Minister of National Defense, Nuno Melo, which was unanimously approved by PSD, Chega, PS, and CDS-PP, was initiated by centrist deputy João Almeida during the debate.
The parliamentarian criticized the PS for presenting a request with accusations directed towards the minister, also president of CDS-PP, without wanting to hear from him.
The goal of Chega and PS is to urgently hear from the Air Force chief, but the scheduling of these hearings sparked a lengthy debate and exchanges of accusations after the committee’s chairman, Pedro Pessanha (Chega), informed MPs of General Cartaxo Alves’ unavailability to address parliament the following week.
This week is the last when MPs can meet in committee sessions due to the parliamentary recess.
Pedro Pessanha informed MPs that if it doesn’t occur next week, the hearing would have to be postponed to September, when various scheduled hearings with the minister and military chiefs are planned.
This point put Chega and the PS against the government-supporting parties, PSD and CDS-PP.
Bruno Vitorino from PSD accused the socialists of simply wanting to “make a show”, suggesting the hearing be postponed to September and brought forward as much as possible with specific timing for this subject.
“The urgency of the PS seems to be merely the media urgency of a political spectacle. Because for the Portuguese people, it makes no difference if we have this clarification now or in a month and a half,” he argued.
The social democrat further questioned the socialists as to why the request wasn’t presented earlier given its urgent nature.
Nuno Simões de Melo from Chega emphasized the urgency of the matter, noting that “everything is very fast in politics” and proposed the committee conduct the Air Force chief’s hearing next week remotely.
Luís Dias from PS repeatedly stressed the urgency of the hearing and suggested seeking authorization from the President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, for it to occur in the last week of this month, after the end of the parliamentary work—a proposal that did not garner consensus.
It was agreed among MPs that General João Cartaxo Alves will be contacted by the parliamentary Defense committee for a hearing next week, whether in person or remotely, and if this is not possible, the hearing is postponed to September.
Recently, the government had to resort to the Air Force to ensure emergency transport, a temporary solution due to the inability of the company awarded the service to commence operations on July 1, as per the contract signed with INEM.
