The deputies of the Budget, Finance and Public Administration Committee approved this Thursday a request from Chega to hear, as a matter of urgency, the governor of the Bank of Portugal in parliament.
At the parliamentary committee meeting, Chega’s request to hear the governor of the Bank of Portugal (BdP), Mário Centeno, was approved with Livre’s abstention and the favorable votes of everyone else.
Banco de Portugal recorded a negative operating result before taxes of 1,054 million euros, and a zero net profit in 2023, according to information published by Jornal de Negócios, on April 11.
The banking regulator will only officially present the accounts on May 16, but the Finance Minister said he was “surprised” by the news, despite the governor of the Bank of Portugal pointing out for some time that the central bank — as the remaining central banks in Europe — would no longer have positive results, due to the tightening of monetary policy.
In a request, submitted in November last year, Chega had asked to hear Mário Centeno, after former Prime Minister António Costa revealed that he proposed to the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the name of the governor of the Bank of Portugal to replace him in the position. The Ethics Committee of the European Central Bank (ECB) concluded that the governor of the Bank of Portugal did not act in a way that compromised his independence in the case of the invitation made by António Costa to replace him.
Mário Centeno praised, at the end of April, that Europe is facing “a great sacrifice in the fight against inflation”, making a greater effort than in other jurisdictions to reach the 2% target.
Tags: Deputies call Centeno parliament urgently
