Portugal’s Prime Minster has gone as far as ‘deeply regretting’ his failure to pay his social security debt on time but cannot bring himself to apologise.
The PM "deeply regrets" his errors when faced with evidence that he failed to pay social security during years of self-employment, but said that the slate now was clean and he has no debt to the tax office or the social security department.
Passos Coelho could have said sorry today in parliament but did not. He will not accept the "political manipulation" surrounding the case. He will answer all questions, except ones that should rightly be provided by state agencies but as for an apology, this is way beneath him.
The parliamentary leader of the Socialist Party, Ferro Rodrigues, said that once again Passos Coelho had 'lost the opportunity' to apologise.
The PM referred to his late payment of Social Security contributions, saying he deeply regretted 'not having been aware of these payments' when he was an independent worker in the 1990s.
This line of defence is now so ingrained that Passos Coelho actually may believe it; all workers are aware they have social security obligations with the exception of the current PM, it seems.
Ferro Rodrigues then took the opportunity of accused the prime minister of being "responsible for the impoverishment of the Portuguese" in 2013 and 2014, asking what Passos Coelho had to say when it was precisely in those years that he chose not to settle his debts to Social Security, when in fact he knew all about them.
As Passos Coelho began to respond, he was drowned by a chorus from the gallery shouting "resign" and various other quite unkind words. The protesters were removed.
The PM did admit that he only paid up after confronted with the outstanding debts by Público, a Portuguese daily.
The arrogance of the PM's stance, when a simple sorry would have seen this issue quickly pass, is symptomatic of the elite class that knows better, screws the system and when caught out thinks it beneath them to admit they were at it.
