A few hours after a PS deputy suggested erasing the recording with the declarations of the Liberal Initiative, the president of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, clarified in a Conference of Leaders that “no board or chairman of a parliamentary committee has the regimental power to turn off the sound of a hearing or destroy or erase documents from a meeting.”

With the hearing of the Minister of Territorial Cohesion still in progress, the parliamentary leader of the Liberal Initiative, Rodrigo Saraiva, took advantage of the Leaders’ Conference that took place late on Wednesday morning to report on the incident that occurred hours before. The minutes of the Conference of Leaders, released this Friday, show the almost immediate apology of Pedro Delgado Alves, on behalf of the PS parliamentary group, but also the first position of the president of the RA, Augusto Santos Silva.

Without knowing the details of the case, but promising that “he would inform the president of the commission” (Isaura Morais, from the PSD), the president of the Assembly of the Republic immediately left the clarification that the tables of the parliamentary assembly commissions , either the president or the vice presidents, do not have “regulatory power” to “silence or destroy or erase documents“. In other words: the request of the PS deputy, Isabel Guerreiro, did not fit in the regiment of the Assembly of the Republic.

Augusto Santos Silva also added that the presidency of a parliamentary commission cannot even “comment on this topic“, to delete recordings or delete documentation, in this case the minutes of the meeting.

This meeting of the Conference of Leaders also took place with the minister’s audience and immediately provoked an apology from the PS, Pedro Delgado Alves making it public in declarations to journalists and with the Liberal Initiative considering the problem “solved”. , while pointing out fixes to PS behavior. Even so, with Santos Silva’s assurance that he will communicate with the commission’s president, it is possible that the issue will return to the table in the meetings of parliamentary leaders.

Rui Tavares asks for a place in the Budget and Finance Committee

The sole deputy of Livre, Rui Tavares, asked at the same meeting of the Conference of Leaders for a seat at the table of the Budget and Finance Committee in order to closely follow the discussion of the State Budget.

Rui Tavares asked to leave the Economy, Public Works, Planning and Housing Commission, to join the Budget and Finance Commission. The deputy for Livre indicated that, by not being part of the commission that discusses the budget project, he had “some difficulties in following up on the work, specifically in the hearings of the ministers”, in addition to being left out of the special vote.

The sole deputies, Rui Tavares and Inês Sousa Real, are part of three parliamentary commissions. Livre’s deputy’s request was accepted informally, but it must be voted on in plenary at the proposal of the president of the Assembly of the Republic.