Who tells what happened behind the scenes in São Bento with Belém listening is the TSF. However, the President has already reacted in an official note.
After all, what happened?
In visit to Autoeuropa yesterday morning, in the company of António Costa, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that “the Prime Minister was very well in Parliament when he said that it made sense for the State to fulfill its responsibilities, but of course if the conclusion of the audit was known” to Novo Banco.
He further added that “if there is, and well, an audit covering the period up to 2018, it makes perfect sense what the Prime Minister said in Parliament: that it is politically different for the State to assume responsibility days before knowing the conclusions of an audit, or the audit is completed days before the State takes responsibility “.
These statements, according to TSF, were not well received by Mário Centeno, who considered them an “interference”, which led Centeno to request an audience with António Costa, translated at the meeting last night in São Bento, which left the country suspended on the continuity of the Minister of Finance in the portfolio.
Mário Centeno was even willing to resign, but for hours a solution was sought for the situation – it should be noted that hours earlier, at Autoeuropa, Costa had launched Marcelo for a new term, reinforcing the idea that the PS will support him if he so decides.
The President’s statements were the last straw after Centeno was under fire for days, with opposition leader Rui Rio even consider that he was unable to remain in office.
The solution to the impasse came in the form of a statement, late in the evening, with Costa reaffirming his confidence in the minister.
It could also be read that the issues related to the lack of timely information to the Prime Minister about the realization of the State loan to the Resolution Fund, which was already provided for in the State Budget for 2020, which the Government proposed and the Assembly of the Republic approved “. “The Prime Minister publicly reaffirms his personal and political confidence in the Minister of State and Finance, Mário Centeno”, he concluded.
However, this Thursday morning, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, according to TSF, called Mário Centeno to explain the statements made yesterday at Autoeuropa, which he said was “a mistake”.
The maintenance of the Finance Minister is to Marcelo’s pleasure, today the Express. “There is a very important European Council on support for countries affected by the pandemic, there are several Eurogroup meetings, and it would be absurd for the Minister of Finance to leave now,” wrote the newspaper, citing a source from the Presidency.
The theme according to the weekly, would be spoken between Marcelo and Costa this Thursday, in a private lunch.
“The President of the Republic does not fire ministers. It does not make sense to pass on the idea that the President wanted to remove the carpet from the Minister of Finance”, now says Bethlehem, for whom the expression “apology” is an exaggeration. This too, says a source from the Presidency to Expresso, “is a mistake”.
However, in a note posted on the Presidency of the Republic’s website, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa states that “he did not comment, nor had to comment, on internal government issues, namely what is the competence of the prime minister, the to know the political confidence in the members of the Government he presides over “.
In the same note, the head of state “reiterates his position” transmitted on Wednesday “according to which it is not indifferent, in political terms, for the State to fulfill what it has to fulfill in terms of commitments in a bank, after the audit conclusions covering the 2018 period, which he himself had requested a year ago, conclusions announced for this month of May, or before that knowledge “.
“Especially in these times of added sacrifices for the Portuguese”, stresses Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, adding that “this very thing was transmitted to the Prime Minister [António Costa] and the Minister of Finance [Mário Centeno]”.
All told, in this political trio, nobody wants to be left with the burden of a political crisis when Portugal is going through a critical period of reopening after the pandemic.
The controversial loan
The weekly Expresso reported last Thursday that Novo Banco received yet another public loan. The news came after António Costa himself assured, that afternoon, in the biweekly debate in parliament, that there would be no more State aid until the results of the audit requested from the bank were known. After all, the Prime Minister was misinformed and did not know that the Ministry of Finance had made this payment. In view of the success, the Prime Minister apologized to the Left Bloc (BE).
This Tuesday, in an interview with TSF, the Minister of Finance admitted a failure of communication between his office and that of the Prime Minister regarding the capital injection in Novo Banco, but “not a financial failure”, which would be disastrous .
Yesterday, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and António Costa visited Autoeuropa and the President, despite praising the Prime Minister’s performance and maintaining that the Government cannot fail with its commitments, he stressed which is different for the Portuguese to fulfill commitments knowing the results of the audit or not.
“For the Portuguese, it is not indifferent to keep commitments with the exact knowledge of what happened in a certain process or to keep commitments and later come to know how that process went until 2018. It is politically different,” he concluded.
Mário Centeno, for his part, defended himself by stating that the transfer of 850 million euros to the Resolution Fund intended for the recapitalization of Novo Banco was not made without the Prime Minister.
“No, it was not by default, there is no decision by the Government that does not pass a joint decision by the Council of Ministers,” Mário Centeno said at a regimental hearing of the Parliament’s Budget and Finance Commission (COF) this Wednesday.
The Finance Minister also stated that “there are no transfers or loans made against anyone’s default”, explaining that “the support file for the Prime Minister arrived a couple of hours late, and the Prime Minister, when he gave the answer he gave, there was no updated information in front of him “.
Mário Centeno also revealed in a parliamentary committee that a new audit will be carried out on Novo Banco, following the transfer of 850 million euros from the Treasury to the Resolution Fund, destined for the institution.
The case led Rui Rio, president of the PSD, to consider that Centeno was unable to continue in the Government and the day ended with António Costa and the Minister of Finance meeting in São Bento, with the country awaiting a decision on whether or not the holder of the Finance portfolio will remain.
The money transferred to Novo Banco by the Resolution Fund (an entity financed by banks operating in Portugal that consolidates in public accounts) was made under the mechanism agreed in the sale of Novo Banco to Lone Star (in 2017), whereby the Fund Resolution Bank compensates the bank for losses on assets that it had in BES ‘resolution.
However, since the Resolution Fund does not have the money needed for capital injections at Novo Banco, it asks the State for money every year, and will repay the loan over 30 years.
This time, of the 1,037 million euros that the Resolution Fund put into Novo Banco, 850 million euros came directly from the State.
Also in 2018, of the 1,149 million euros placed at Novo Banco, 850 million euros came from a loan from the Treasury.
As for 2017, of the 792 million euros injected, 430 million euros came from a public loan.
In total, Novo Banco has already received 2,978 million euros from the Resolution Fund to recapitalize, of which 2,130 million euros were from Treasury loans.
The mechanism by which Novo Banco can be recapitalized by the Bank Resolution Fund was created in 2017.
In October of that year, 75% of Novo Banco was sold to the North American investment fund Lone Star, at 75%, while the Bank Resolution Fund maintained 25%. Lone Star paid no price, having injected EUR 1 billion into Novo Banco.
(News updated at 14:25 with the note from the Presidency)
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