Ferro Rodrigues is outraged by Moedas and accuses the mayor of lying about Jorge Coelho

Ferro Rodrigues, former secretary-general of the Socialist Party and former president of the Assembly of the Republic, said this Monday that he was outraged by Carlos Moedas' statements regarding the dismissal of Minister Jorge Coelho after the collapse of the Entre-os-Rios bridge in 2001.

“As a friend and successor of Jorge Coelho in the Ministry of Social Equipment, I express my indignation at Carlos Moedas’ lies,” Ferro Rodrigues told the Lusa news agency.

The issue is the fact that the Mayor of Lisbon was confronted on Sunday night, during an interview with SIC about the tragic incident with the Elevador da Glória, with the example of the late socialist Jorge Coelho, in 2001, who resigned from his post as Minister of Social Equipment following the collapse of the Entre-os-Rios bridge, on the Douro River.

Carlos Moedas rejected the comparison and said that the office of then-minister Jorge Coelho had been informed about the bridge's fragility even before the accident, while in his case, on the contrary, he had not received any signal to that effect in relation to the Elevador da Glória.

“Political responsibility is when the politician knows and does not act,” argued the mayor.

However, according to Ferro Rodrigues, “Jorge Coelho had no information that what happened could happen” and Carlos Moedas “lied”.

"Otherwise, obviously, I would have prohibited access to the bridge during that terrible storm," he assured, adding that they would not say more about the matter because they did not want to "contribute to those who seek to divert attention from the collapse of the Entre-os-Rios bridge, where all the investigations were carried out and published."