LISBON – The current president of the European Council, António Costa, and other Portuguese politicians who served in the government of current UN Secretary-General António Guterres decades ago have come together to denounce comments made by Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas following the deadly crash on Lisbon’s Glória funicular.
Moedas, who is facing calls to resign after 16 people died in the incident, was asked during a televised interview on Sunday whether he should follow the example of the late Socialist leader Jorge Coelho, who resigned his ministerial post in 2001 after the collapse of the Entre-os-Rios bridge on the River Douro.
Moedas claimed that Coelho’s office had received warnings about the bridge before its collapse, whereas he had received no such indication regarding the funicular.
Those remarks did not sit well with Coelho’s former colleagues, including Costa, who wrote a joint letter accusing Moedas of spreading “falsehoods” and seeking to defend the honour of Coelho, who died in 2021: “Since Jorge Coelho cannot defend himself, it is our duty to defend his memory.”
(edited by Pedro Sousa Carvalho, sma)
