Na Comissão Parlamentar de Defesa Nacional, Chega voted against two requests, while PSD and CDS-PP, parties supporting the government in parliament, voted against the communists’ request and abstained on the socialists’.
The controversy revolves around a stopover in Base das Lajes, located in the Azores archipelago, by three F-35 aircraft in April, which were sold by the United States to Israel. This occurred without prior communication to the head of Portuguese diplomacy, Paulo Rangel, described as a “procedural fault” that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has expressed a desire to investigate.
Initially, the authorization was attributed to an entity dependent on the Ministry of Defense, the National Aeronautics Authority. However, the MFA clarified that it was “exclusively an internal communication failure” within Paulo Rangel’s oversight.
From the PS, the coordinator of the party on this committee, Luís Dias, stated that there are still “contradictory” information and stressed that “as it is a situation related to the military use of Base das Lajes, there is a need to hear from the Minister of National Defense”.
Luís Dias argued that Portugal is part “of a convention that somehow tries to avoid these kinds of situations”, believing that the minister should provide more clarifications on the subject.
However, the socialists found themselves isolated in defending this thesis, as PCP deputy Alfredo Maia was not present to support his request due to “overlapping of meetings of other committees” happening simultaneously.
For PSD, deputy Bruno Ventura stated that his party would not oppose hearing the minister in the committee but highlighted that the PS request “at no moment mentions the competence of the Ministry of Defense in relation to the authorization” of the stopover or not.
Chega deputy Nuno Simões de Melo stood against both requests, emphasizing that the F-35s that stopped at Base das Lajes “were aircraft of the American State and not of the State of Israel” and that, as such, Portugal had to act “as an allied country with whom we have an agreement for the use of Base das Lajes”.
“Chega sees no reason to hear the Minister of Defense on a matter that was admitted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to be their responsibility”, argued the party’s coordinator on the committee.
Also, CDS-PP deputy João Almeida expressed confusion over “the pertinence” of the requests and argued that the right to call ministers to parliament “is free” but “depending on the subject”, stressing that “the Minister of Defense cannot be called to discuss dams or the national electricity system”.
“We know that the competence related to this kind of agreement is not with the Minister of Defense, it is with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. States do not relate between the armed forces of one country and the armed forces of another country. (…) The use of military installations is not handled by a country’s Chief of Staff calling another Chief of Staff and saying, ‘Hey, do you mind if I stop there with planes?’ This is not Solnado’s war,” he joked.
For CDS-PP, led by Nuno Melo, “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was very clear”, even “in assuming responsibility”.
The case was reported during the municipal election campaign earlier this month, with the Prime Minister lamenting the “procedural error”. However, Luís Montenegro refused any executive resignation over this issue.
The Lajes Air Base, located in the Azores archipelago, is used by the United States under a bilateral cooperation agreement.
