Sócrates denies Moedas' claim about Jorge Coelho's dismissal in 2001

José Sócrates today denied the president of the Lisbon City Council's claim regarding Jorge Coelho's resignation in 2001, stressing that the late socialist leader resigned following the Entre-os-Rios tragedy out of political responsibility.

Leaving the court where he is being tried as part of the Operação Marquês case, in Lisbon, the former prime minister denied that Jorge Coelho, Minister of Social Equipment in 2001, when the Entre-os-Rios bridge collapsed, knew that there were problems with the equipment, contrary to what the president of the Lisbon City Council, Carlos Moedas, said on Sunday.

"That's false. I remember that, on the night the bridge collapsed, I clearly remember speaking with Minister Jorge Coelho. That wasn't the reason for his resignation [knowledge of the problems], it was a political reason," said José Sócrates, who in 2001 was Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning.

"[Jorge Coelho] had no idea that there was a problem with the bridge that the ministry already knew about. He resigned because he understood there was political responsibility," the former prime minister added.

On Sunday, during an interview with SIC about the causes of the fatal accident with the Elevador da Glória, in Lisbon, Carlos Moedas was confronted 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 Jorge Coelho's office had received information that pointed to 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.

The accident that occurred last Wednesday with the Glória elevator, in Lisbon, caused 16 deaths and several serious injuries.