PM has nominated ‘no 2’ Nuno Melo for ‘head-to-head’ with smaller parties
Election-fever is in the air: the country must endure nearly two months of it before the next ‘snap elections’ – and opposition parties are bristling with indignation today over the prime minister’s decision not to take part in every single televised debate.
Arguing that “all partners with parliamentary representation” should be involved in the debates, Luís Montenegro has said in a post over social media that he plans only to debate with the leaders of PS Socialists, CHEGA, Iniciativa Liberal and PCP communists, while his ‘no 2’, president of the CDS-PP Nuno Melo, will debate with Bloco de Esquerda, LIVRE and PAN (parties traditionally commanding the least number of votes).
The decision has unleashed a torrent of ‘righteous indignation’, if not accusations of being a coward/ frightened (this even from CHEGA which will see its leader have his moment opposite the prime minister) – and LIVRE, in the form of Rui Tavares, has essentially flatly refused to go along with it.
Speaking to journalists at the party headquarters in Lisbon, Tavares stated that he “will only debate with Luís Montenegro” and not with the leader of the CDS-PP, because Nuno Melo, unlike the other party leaders, “is not a candidate for prime minister”.
“I would be delighted to debate with Nuno Melo, I have been debating with him for 15 years (…), but for that to happen Nuno Melo would have to have the courage to run for Prime Minister and go to the elections alone. That is not what he is now and, therefore, it is not in these debates that Nuno Melo has to be involved”, said Tavares, whose party elected four MPs in the last ‘snap elections’.
Tavares criticises other parties that “are accepting” the PM’s terms, saying he would have expected more of them, “for the sake of honesty”, ethics and to ensure that everyone is judged “by the same yardstick”. He also weighs in against TV stations, saying they should “tell Luís Montenegro that he either accepts debates under the same terms for all candidates for prime minister” or he cannot go on air, full stop.
“The terms of debates, in any civilised and democratic country in the world, are established jointly, collectively, and one of the interlocutors having the right to change the rules of the game has a very easy but also very ugly name, which is cheating. And we must not let Luís Montenegro get away with his cheating,” Tavares continues..
Rui Tavares said he knows the reasons why Luís Montenegro does not want to debate with him: the Prime Minister does not want to clarify why he didn’t hand over the family company (Spinumviva) to independent professional management when he returned to active politics.
“This question undermines all of Luís Montenegro’s arguments for acting as he did”, suggests the LIVRE spokesperson, because his family would have been protected, the company would have been able to return to his family sphere at the end of Montenegro’s term as prime minister – and therefore the insinuation that ‘there must have been another reason for his keeping the company in his family’s control’.
Tavares’ arguments are just further indication that the spectre of Spinumviva will continue to haunt these elections, irrespective of the fact that the ‘parliamentary inquiry’ requested by PS Socialists into the PM’s affairs, has, for now, been refused. ND
Source: Lusa
