After the good news about the birth rate in Portugal, which is largely due to immigrants and the children of immigrants, he made a point of highlighting, Luís Marques Mendes advanced in his weekly commentary to a harsh criticism of the layoffs at the Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Lisbon. “There is everything to explain” in the case of the Santa Casa changes, said the former PSD leader. He defends the minister beforehand — “I know the minister well enough to say that she would not make a decision of this nature if there were no serious situations” — but does not excuse the lack of clarification. “It is not normal for an ombudsman at Misericórdia de Lisboa to be fired and there not being a detailed explanation of why this dismissal is carried out”, says Marques Mendes.
And when these explanations arrive later, “worse”.
“As long as there is no explanation, the idea remains, for many people, that this was a political clean-up.” The appointment of the new provider will be “a test of credibility”.
“If the minister chooses a politician linked to the PSD or the CDS, she will not be free from the accusation that this is purely and simply a political clean-up”, warns Marques Mendes, who also reinforces: “If the minister goes down this path there is room for loss of credibility.” The opposite happens if you choose a person with a less partisan and more academic and technical profile, he argues.
And there are three explanations required, in Marques Mendes’ opinion, which puts pressure on the PSD to offer a broader explanation of what happened. Firstly, he lists, “knowing whether the injection, in 2023, of 34 million into Santa Casa is legal”; the second question has to do with the internationalization audit that Marques Mendes wants to see in the public domain; and, thirdly, comes the restructuring plan: “We need to know whether it exists or not. And if it doesn’t exist, we need to know why it doesn’t exist”, he concludes.
Failed communication in the new Government
A controversy that is part of Marques Mendes’ analysis of the first 30 days of Government. Luís Montenegro gets a positive note “for speaking little and being assertive when he speaks”, for his performance abroad and for having dodged the “retarder bomb” that were Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s statements about historical reparations.
In terms of governance, the scenario is now less rosy. Marques Mendes identifies a first flaw: communication. “The vast majority of ministers are failing to communicate. In any Government, communication is essential, and in a minority Government it is not essential, it is decisive”. Examples of communication failures? Several: the departure of Fernando Araújo as CEO of the SNS, the departure of Ana Jorge da Santa Casa, which had no explanation, Nuno Melo’s tirades about mandatory military service, the confusion over the deficit with Miranda Sarmento, Minister of Finance, These are episodes that, for Marques Mendes, show that the communication machine is not yet oiled. “He should deal with this part of his role as minister and leave the political combat to others”, says the commentator, about the Minister of Finance