Lisbon, Jan. 19, 2021 (Lusa) - Portugal's prime minister, António Costa, said on Tuesday that he did not know "inconvenient prosecutors or prosecutors who are friends of the government", after having once again been confronted with alleged contradictions pointed out by the opposition PSD, regarding the controversy surrounding the choice of the European prosecutor José Guerra.

The issue was brought up for debate by the PSD in the first debate of the year with the prime minister on general policy in parliament, in which member Mónica Quintela pointed out "contradictory statements" to the prime minister.

Quoting António Costa, she pointed out that on 7 January the Socialist leader said: "it is up to the government to appoint the European Public Prosecutor. The government could simply have chosen whoever it wanted".

However, in a letter addressed to Europe on 12 January, she said Costa wrote: "I inform you that in Portugal the selection of the three magistrates to be appointed to the European Public Prosecutor's Office is not the responsibility of the government but of the higher councils of the Magistrature and the Public Prosecutor's Office under Law 112 of 2019 of 10 September".

"Why have you given different explanations in Portugal and in Europe, both of which are false? Like all the others, this mistake is not innocent prime minister, " she claimed, posing the hypothesis that some of the candidates were "inconvenient".

In his reply, the prime minister was clear: "I don't know any inconvenient prosecutors or prosecutors friendly to the government".

ARYL/ADB // ADB.

Lusa