President of Madeira Says Infrastructure Minister’s Position is “Unsustainable” and Calls for Prime Minister to Take Control

The President of the Regional Government of Madeira (PSD/CDS-PP), Miguel Albuquerque, stated today that the position of Infrastructure Minister, Joao Galamba, is “unsustainable,” and argued that the prime minister “has to take control of the situation.” “At this moment, it is not the opposition that is questioning the political stability for the government [PS] to govern. It is the government members themselves who are in complete competition and self-cannibalization, which is leading to the discreditation of democracy itself,” he said.

Albuquerque made these comments to journalists in Funchal, where he attended the Festa da Flor parade, commenting on the latest events related to the Ministry of Infrastructure and the parliamentary inquiry into TAP, which involved the dismissal of Frederico Pinheiro, an aide of Minister Joao Galamba.

“This disaster that is happening is, in fact, bad for democratic institutions, for the credibility of the regime, and at this point, I think the minister’s position is untenable,” said Miguel Albuquerque.

The head of the Madeira executive believes that Prime Minister Antonio Costa “has to put his house in order” and “take control of the situation” because “the country cannot always be in elections.”

“The degeneration that is happening, from my point of view, has only one principle, which is to confuse state issues with partisan issues, to use the state apparatus as if it were theirs [the PS’s] property,” he said, stressing that these circumstances lead to the “weakening of a government that had all the conditions to govern.”

Miguel Albuquerque described the situation at TAP as “a sad soap opera,” warning that it involved taxpayers’ money. “The prime minister has to put his house in order because it is not the opposition, it is not the President of the Republic, it is not the citizens who are causing the government’s degeneration,” he added.

In a press conference on Saturday, the Infrastructure Minister argued that he had “all the conditions” to stay in the government, denied contradictions, and highlighted that the facts showed cooperation with the parliamentary inquiry into TAP.

Joao Galamba noted that he informed former CEO of TAP, Christine Ourmieres-Widener, about the preparatory meeting requested by the PS, in which she could participate if she wished, and had received a confirmation of interest to attend, to which he did not object.

The minister also stated that he reported the theft of a computer by the dismissed aide Frederico Pinheiro to the Secretary of State for the Prime Minister’s Office and to the Minister of Justice, who advised him to report it to the SIS and PJ.

The dismissed aide accused the Ministry of Infrastructure of wanting to conceal information from the TAP parliamentary inquiry about the “preparatory meeting” with the ex-CEO.