As Visão and Saturday reported, and SOL confirmed, the last meeting at Infarmed to assess the evolution of the covid-19 pandemic in Portugal, on Wednesday, ended in an unusual way, with António Costa abruptly interrupting Minister Marta Feared when it talked about the effects of confinement in northern Portugal.
«It’s a lie, it’s a lie», said António Costa, when the Minister of Health said that the north of the country registered more cases during the confinement of the state of emergency, noting that there were sectors, such as construction, that never stopped. António Costa even added that «this type of speech is not useful», before a Marta Temido who, with a mask on, was left with a look of astonishment and incredulity. Almost immediately, Costa turned to President Marcelo and announced a new meeting of the highest figures in the state with Infarmed specialists and representatives of all parties in 15 days, ending the session.
At SOL, participants at the meeting reported that the prime minister’s irritation with the minister was the culmination of a series of uncomfortable interventions for António Costa, who did not fail to reveal his dissatisfaction with responses that reached rudeness.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was the first to question the situation in Greater Lisbon and to ask questions about the contagion rates (the famous R), leaving the prime minister soon uneasy. But that was when Ferro Rodrigues wanted to know if we were already in a second wave of the covid-19 outbreak and Baltasar Nunes responded affirmatively that António Costa reacted impatiently and took the floor to explain, for about 15 minutes, his thesis that covid-19 figures in Portugal are inflated by the fact that the country is one of the most tested. He even joked with Trump’s position (who threatened to cut tests to improve US numbers).
Experts oppose Costa’s and Trump’s thesis
However, what made Costa start to lose his temper was the response of Baltasar Nunes and Rita Sá Machado, who immediately deconstructed this ‘explanation’, considering that, in reality, the worrying evolution of the covid-19 in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo and the rest of the country has nothing to do with the number of tests carried out.
And, according to the reports collected by SOL, it was already clearly counterfeited that Costa heard the AHRESP representative demand more support and incentive measures for tourism, failing to avoid answering him that the Government had already managed to bring the final phase of the Champions to Lisbon and it was good that the hotel and restaurant sector adapted.
Marta Temido, who spoke next, turned out to be the scapegoat for all the setbacks that accumulated throughout the meeting. And his speech about the consequences of the confinement in the North of the country was just the last straw that made António Costa’s glass of patience overflow.
Despite this episode, and the incredulous look of Marta Temido (who disguised it with a nervous smile) at Costa’s reaction, the minister’s continuity in the Executive is considered unquestionable. Especially since we are in the middle of a pandemic and it would be unthinkable to remodel the main responsible for coordinating the respective fight.
Although there is no shortage of people who remember that Secretary of State António Lacerda Sales has revealed himself in matters of communication and crisis management.
«It is enough that Mário Centeno left. There can be no more casualties in the Government now ”, emphasizes a prominent socialist heard by SOL, recalling that António Costa always endured Constança Urbano de Sousa during the tragic fires of 2017, only replacing the Minister of Internal Administration after the aftermath was made.
To SOL, a deputy from the PS admits that Costa is “irritated” with the situation in Lisbon, because the experts are not “giving concrete answers to what is happening”. Another socialist pointed out that Costa strongly insisted on the idea of increasing testing to explain the numbers in Lisbon and realized that he could not use this narrative anymore. At this point there seemed to be a generalized and clear consensus of experts in what was the most tense meeting with experts.
‘We are all tired’, says Marta Temido
Yesterday, at the press conference on covid-19 numbers, Marta Temido was confronted by Costa’s irritation at the meeting, behind closed doors, with specialists. And the question was whether he received an ear tug. The Minister of Health replied: “If the Prime Minister pulled the ears of the Minister of Health, he would certainly be right”. Without confirming whether the prime minister was angry, after hours of a meeting in which he did not get all the answers he needed, Marta Temido preferred to highlight the moment of combating the covid-19 pandemic. «At this moment when we are all tired it is natural that some of the tranquility is lost and that we can ask ourselves if things are all moving in the best direction ». And he preferred to describe the current situation: «What is a fact is that we are having difficulty breaking transmission chains, they are persistent, we put additional resources on the ground, this happened last week and yesterday with [ a aprovação] new measures in these areas’.
Tiredness, wear and tear and the fact that it was not possible to get a full explanation for the numbers in Lisbon ended up dictating the outcome of the last meeting with epidemiologies, ending abruptly and with the Prime Minister rising quickly from the room. In this scenario, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo e Sousa, later tried to maintain the speech that he had aligned with the journalists (with which Costa fully agreed) and within fifteen days there will be another meeting.
However, there are those who fear that these meetings may again have more moments of tension, especially if the numbers do not slow down in the coming weeks (with the results of the measures approved yesterday). In addition, in the Health sector, the appointment of the suppression office for covid-19 in Lisbon had already been seen as a yellow card to the Minister of Health and the regional health administration of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo. To lead the commission, Duarte Cordeiro, Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs, a government official with no experience in health, was chosen.
From a political point of view, there are those who remind SOL that, in a state of emergency, the prime minister has always talked to the parties about the measures to be taken to combat the health crisis. And since May it has not done so, except for the economic stabilization plan and the supplementary budget.
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