In statements to journalists in parliament, shortly after the PSD, CDS and PS voted down the commission of inquiry into the privatization of ANA, which took place in 2013, PCP deputy António Filipe guaranteed that the party "will not give up on holding the authors of this decision politically responsible".

"Today we requested the Economy Commission to hear the members of the Government who were responsible for the decisions regarding the privatization of ANA Aeroportos, namely the former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, the former Minister of Finance Vítor Gaspar, the former Secretary of State for the Treasury Maria Luís Albuquerque and the former Secretary of State [for Infrastructures] Sérgio Albuquerque," he said.

In addition to these former government officials, the PCP also requested the hearing of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ANA, José Luís Arnaut, as well as the current CEO of the airport management company, Thierry Ligonnière, and the organizations representing the workers.

António Filipe stressed that the rejection of the commission of inquiry proposed by the PCP is "negative" and does not cease to surprise the party that the PSD, CDS and PS "refuse to investigate very serious allegations of damage to the public interest that were committed in this privatization process".

The deputy stressed that one of the arguments used by the PSD and PS to reject the inquiry was that "the Economy Commission had the competence to hold hearings on this matter and investigate what was necessary", which he considered not to be true.

"As is known, parliamentary commissions of inquiry have reinforced powers, namely regarding the obligation of any citizen who must be questioned to do so. This does not happen in the case of parliamentary committees, which are not committees of inquiry," he said.

Even so, given the "seriousness" of the case, António Filipe indicated that the PCP decided to go ahead with the request for hearings in the Economy Commission.

Asked about what he expects the PS's position on these requests to be, António Filipe replied that, in Tuesday's debate on the parliamentary inquiry, the socialists had indicated that the Economy Commission "had the competence to scrutinize government activity" and that "there could be initiatives on this matter".

"That is what we are doing. Therefore, we do not want to believe that, after having said this in plenary, the PS considers that the Economy Commission is no longer competent. Therefore, we hope that these hearings will be approved and that they will be held," he said.

Parliament today rejected the PCP's proposal for the creation of a commission of inquiry into the privatization of ANA Aeroportos, which was carried out in 2013 by the PSD/CDS Government led by Pedro Passos Coelho.

The proposal was rejected with votes against from the PSD, PS and CDS, abstention from Chega and votes in favor from IL, BE, PCP, Livre and PAN.

Read Also: PSD, CDS and PS reject commission of inquiry into the privatization of ANA (Portuguese version)