He began by refusing to comment on the Alexandra Reis case. She then attested to the legality of everything. On the same day, however, he suggested that it was “beautiful” that the now former secretary of state returned the money she received from the airline. When the details became known, he could not hide his irritation at having ceded office to a straw-tailed ruler without the government having done its homework. Later, he would defend the ministers involved, only to leave a suggestion in the air: perhaps the dismissal of Alexandra Reis would not be “enough”. And the rest is history.
It was almost a week of doubts, advances and setbacks, defenses and criticism of the Government. Since the day it was revealed that one of the most recent State Secretaries of the Executive would have received 500,000 euros to leave TAP, the statements by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa have multiplied, sometimes on the same day.
To the discontent of many Socialists, it was the President of the Republic who fanned the political and media fire, to the point of revealing supposedly confidential details —such as the possibility that the compensation was not 500,000 euros, but almost 1.5 million .
The case ended up becoming more serious for the Government and for António Costa when it led to the resignation of one of the most important ministers of the Executive and one of the possible successors of the socialist leader. The year ends with Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa as one of the protagonists of one of the biggest political crises that the PS had to face.
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Source: Observadora
