“My confidence in the justice system remains, and justice will do its work at the appropriate time and in the manner it deems fit. What I believe is that the prime minister, when the time comes, should provide the explanations requested by the authorities,” said José Luís Carneiro to journalists at the entrance of a municipal campaign rally in Barreiro, Setúbal district.
Avoiding commenting on the sources of the news and the reasons for their release, the PS leader urged against hasty conclusions.
“I think we have the duty to avoid hasty conclusions on matters of this sensitivity for the interest of the country,” he stated.
“In these matters, the most important thing is to maintain a sense of state. The sense of state is to trust the justice institutions, trust justice, and avoid hasty conclusions,” he reiterated, emphasizing that “what is important” at this moment is to maintain “the tranquility of the institutions and the justice system doing its work.”
Carneiro also mentioned that according to the statement from the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PGR), “the preventive investigation is ongoing.”
“If there is a preventive investigation, we must wait for it to be completed, and from there, whether an inquiry will take place or not will be decided. After the inquiry, there is a phase where one may or may not be constituted as a defendant,” he noted.
Asked if he noticed any difference between António Costa’s stance, who resigned following Operation Influencer, and Luís Montenegro’s, José Luís Carneiro recalled that the former prime minister “considered that when a PGR statement questioned his integrity, in defense of the institutions’ prestige, he decided to resign.”
“When the prime minister finds it appropriate, and as soon as the judicial authorities request his information, he should provide it and clarify as demanded,” he reiterated.
The prime minister expressed being “astonished and angry” about the news regarding the Spinumviva case, describing it as an “outrage” and stating he awaits the “analysis and judgment of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.”
The Public Prosecutor’s Office clarified today that the preventive investigation related to the company Spinumviva is ongoing and that the Public Ministry is still awaiting documentation, so the investigation continues.
“There is, therefore, currently no formed conviction that allows for the closure of the aforementioned preventive investigation, and nothing has been proposed to the Attorney General of the Republic in this regard,” the PGR statement says.
[News updated at 22:22]
