"Your information has a serious omission here" and "that serious omission is that the participation of this municipal chamber is not detailed here, which has thus become complicit in the political purge of the board of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa [SCML]", stated Miguel Coelho.

The also president of the Parish Council of Santa Maria Maior, who spoke after Carlos Moedas spoke about the written information on the activity of the executive in the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon (AML), recalled previous reappointments by socialist governments, such as that of Pedro Santana Lopes, unlike the executive of Luís Montenegro (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM).

"To whitewash this purge with an absolutely unworthy press release about the lack of response from the Santa Casa da Misericórdia in social issues, directly targeting a mayor, a person who is from the Socialist Party, of course, he never hid it, in whom I have never seen any parish president, no mayor express reasons for complaint, quite the opposite, who is Dr. Sérgio Cintra", stated Miguel Coelho.

For the socialist mayor, the press release from the current municipal leaders "makes them complicit in this purge and the least that can be demanded is a public apology to Dr. Sérgio Cintra", for seeing "competence" and "reputation as a citizen, professional, as a manager" in social issues being questioned, he stressed.

The board of the SCML is composed of Ana Jorge (trustee), Ana Vitória Azevedo (deputy trustee) and Nuno Miguel Alves, Teresa do Passo, Sérgio Cintra, and João Correia (members).

The deputy announced that the socialist bench will call the 6th permanent committee of the AML, of Human and Social Rights, Citizenship and Transparency and Fight against Corruption, the councillor for Social Action at the Lisbon City Council "to explain what went wrong at the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa in social support".

"What I have been saying for over two years has nothing to do with who is there, it is that at this moment the Santa Casa is not providing the answers that we need", replied Carlos Moedas (PSD), assuring that "this is what I told the trustee and the previous trustee".

The social democrat accused that those responsible for the SCML "stopped everything they were doing with the municipal chamber" after his election as mayor, when, he emphasised, "Social Security delegates all social assistance" in the municipality to the Santa Casa.

In this sense, the mayor defended that the municipality should have a representative on the board of the SCML, a measure that would have been welcomed by the previous prime minister António Costa, but which was never implemented.

The Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security today accused the dismissed trustee of the Santa Casa of "total inaction", the administration of benefiting itself and rejected the idea of "political purge" in the dismissal.

In an interview with RTP, Minister Maria do Rosário Ramalho stated that she had "very solid grounds" for the decision to dismiss the trustee of the SCML, Ana Jorge, as well as the rest of the board (administration) of the institution.

"I have even heard that it was a political purge. It was nothing of the sort", guaranteed the minister, who justified the dismissal of Ana Jorge "for management reasons", accusing her of "total inaction" in the face of the financial crisis situation that she inherited from the previous administration, reiterating what the Government had already stated in the press release regarding the dismissal about the non-existence of a restructuring plan.

"The conversation we had did not show any sense of urgency in the face of the situation that existed", said Maria do Rosário Ramalho, insisting that "there was nothing" and that since taking office Ana Jorge "has done nothing" to improve or reverse the financial situation.

The process of replacing Ana Jorge "is urgent, but not hasty", guaranteed the minister.

Ana Jorge took office on 02 May 2023, chosen by the previous socialist government of António Costa, and inherited an institution with serious financial difficulties, after years of pandemic and a process of internationalisation of social games, carried out by the administration of trustee Edmundo Martinho, which may have caused losses in the order of 50 million euros.

After her dismissal, the trustee wrote a letter to all SCML employees, in which she accused the Government of having dismissed her "in a rude, arrogant and slanderous manner" and that she was taken by surprise.

Read Also: "Total inaction". Minister rejects political purge at Santa Casa (Portuguese version)