Hugo Soares says it was the PS that broke consensus on the Nationality Law and criticizes Carneiro at TAP

The parliamentary leader of the PSD today accused the PS of being the first to break the consensus between the two parties on the Nationality Law and described José Luís Carneiro's position on TAP as "tragicomic."

At the opening of the PSD/CDS-PP parliamentary sessions, which run until Tuesday in Évora, Hugo Soares assured that his party will seek "the greatest possible consensus" to approve the changes to the Nationality Law, which will be discussed in September in parliament, and responded to criticism from the PS, which has accused the Government of falling into the hands of the far right on this matter.

"It was the Socialist Party that destroyed the consensus on the Nationality Law in Portugal, not us. The PS either carried out the latest revisions to the Nationality Law alone or with the far left in Portugal, abandoning the historic consensus it had with the PSD," he accused.

Hugo Soares also made another harsh criticism of the PS secretary-general, José Luís Carneiro, who argued that the State should return to taxpayers the 3.2 billion euros injected into TAP, following the announcement of the reprivatization of 49.9% of the company by the current PSD/CDS-PP executive.

"Hearing the PS secretary-general call for us to recover the 3.2 billion euros they invested in the privatization of 49.9% of TAP's share capital is, to say the least, tragicomic," he accused.

On the one hand, the PSD parliamentary leader argued that the PS should start by apologizing to the Portuguese people.

"Because the decision to invest, to place, to pour 3.2 billion euros into TAP was made by the PS and with the full hand of the former secretary-general of the PS, who the current one supported," he said, referring to Pedro Nuno Santos.

On the other hand, he also considered this statement by José Luís Carneiro to be comical.

"Demanding that the 3.2 billion euros they deposited there could be recovered in this privatization meant that, roughly speaking, the Socialist Party valued TAP as a whole at around 6.4 billion euros, meaning it was worth one, two, or three times more than Air France," he criticized.

“One of two things: either it’s political combat for the sake of political combat, without criteria, without rigor, or it’s simply a clear incompetence on the part of the Socialist Party’s general secretary,” he accused.