Portugal is a country full of urgent needs at all levels and with measly salaries, yet it can pay 4 million euros from the public purse for a medicine to be administered in Portugal to some citizens living in Brazil, for the simple reason that they, in their own words, “knew the daughter-in-law of the President of the Portuguese Republic, who knew the Minister of Health”.
After all, to have a 4 million euro top health service in Portugal, which is ultra-fast (no waiting list) and totally free, where the entire state machine is there to intercede for you, so you don’t even have to do anything, it’s really very easy, you don’t even have to be from the country! You just have to know someone who knows someone in Marcelo’s family! Best public health system in the world! (sarc.)
This is so typical and common in Portugal, the only difference is that this time it got out (what a bummer!), while millions of other cases of corruption and nepotism of greater or lesser gravity never come to the public’s attention.
As you will realize when you read this article to the end, the level of rot, corruption, connivance and lies has spread throughout the Portuguese state machine, right up to the highest level – President of the Republic, Prime Minister, various ministers, hospital directors, journalists, without anyone decent, not even one person, stopping this crime of corruption from happening. Instead, it is absolutely staggering how the ball keeps rolling, with varying degrees of complicity and cover-up, without parallel in any country I know of, except perhaps some banana republic in Africa, and even then I risk doing those Africans a great injustice by comparing them to the sheer malice that is very characteristic of the vast majority of the Portuguese people.
All these scum do whatever they want with the country’s resources and the Portuguese people’s money! Their blatant lack of respect for the Portuguese people is appalling and outrageous! But the Portuguese don’t care because they are mostly a bunch of wimps and think alike.
Obviously, in any other country, this President of the Republic would at least be forced to resign, the problem is that in Portugal there is no one to dismiss him, since all the other participants in the Portuguese state are equally corrupt and complicit in the crime committed in broad daylight, so they won’t arrest themselves. And the Portuguese people, who should be bringing the country down with these scandals, are much more concerned with watching soap operas than defending themselves against the scum who have taken over their country.
Everything about this news shocks me, but what stands out even more in the midst of all this shit is to see how easily everyone (including all these high profile individuals) lies through their teeth without a shred of shame in this soulless Portugal, even in the face of the truth of their actions spilled out in front of these corrupt people. I watched in horror, right in the middle of a Portuguese court, as corrupt and fake Portuguese “judges” shamelessly lied to protect the criminal who stole from me and countless other known and unknown victims. There is no such thing as truth in Portugal, the overwhelming majority of Portuguese are of such bad character that they just lie and spend their lives lying to everyone and to themselves. There is no floor of decency in Portugal, it’s all downhill. Such horrible, despicable people, like they don’t exist anywhere else in the world (in such concentration).
In all of this, the only people I don’t blame are the Brazilian couple who wanted to help their children. Parents do everything for their children and have the right to try everything, first of all the Portuguese president and then all the other participants who obviously couldn’t corrupt themselves. As I said, in any other country this president would not be president anymore the next day, together with all the others involved, but in Portugal, as always, the investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and all the other shenanigans are pure pretense for foreigners to see, and so in the end everything will be shelved. This is Portuguese being Portuguese, and what a nightmare it is! Yuck!
The following article is a translation (mostly MT). You can find the link to the original website at the end of it.
“I asked indirectly”: mother of Portuguese-Brazilian twins breaks silence
The President of the Republic ensures that the Portuguese-Brazilian twins’ process complied with the law and guarantees that the son’s request was forwarded to the Government like that of any other citizen. However, the children’s mother admits that at Santa Maria Hospital there were references to interference by the head of state.
The mother of the Portuguese-Brazilian twins broke her silence and, in an interview with RTP, admitted that at Santa Maria Hospital there was talk of President Marcelo’s influence. The head of State insists, however, that this case did not receive any differentiated treatment from the Presidency of the Republic.
“I had the impression, as was said in the corridors of the Santa Maria Hospital, that I had some help, I had the impression that they [the Presidency of the Republic] might have made some request”, says Daniela Martins to RTP, confirming that she asked “in an indirect way , I asked everyone, I cried out for help, I even have emails that weren’t even sent by me, but by people, like my cousin, who lived in Portugal, and who tried to discover the path that had to be followed”.
However, President Marcelo’s version is that the case followed the legal procedures and that it went to São Bento without the surname Rebelo de Sousa.
“This applies to all citizens”, declared the head of state. When asked by journalists about his son’s intervention, Marcelo refused to comment: “Ask Doctor Nuno Rebelo de Sousa, I’m not Doctor Nuno Rebelo de Sousa, he’s 50 years old and has lived in Brazil for ten years. He is a person who is not President of the Republic, he was not elected”.
Furthermore, he added: “The son of a President is not a President, a brother of a President is not a President. There is only one person elected in Portugal to be President: it is me”.
Marcelo reiterates that “there was nothing that was not respect for the law”, that the case of the twins received “the same treatment as that which was followed in relation to any citizen, there was nothing that was not a transparent procedure in administrative terms”. Now, he says, “from the moment the Government was communicated, a process began in which the Presidency of the Republic had no intervention”
As he had already done when communicating to the country, Marcelo places responsibility on the Government and, therefore, will wait for the Court’s conclusions.
“If reality determines that there was at some stage something that was illegal, whether on the part of someone who exercises public functions, or on the part of someone who is a mere private person, that is where Justice works”, concludes the President.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office and the General Inspection of Health Activities (IGAS) are still investigating the case, but the Medical Association’s investigation into the involvement of former Secretary of State Lacerda Sales, according to the president, never existed.
“This rumor was launched and is being exploited, from my point of view, to divert attention from what is essential”, assures Carlos Cortes.
In Parliament, Chega and the Liberal Initiative, with the support of the PSD, have already asked for a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry to clarify the case of the twins who at Santa Maria Hospital received a medicine costing four million euros.
More related news
Marcelo, Lacerda Sales and 9 other protagonists: how no one knows or remembers the case of the twins.
Over the past few days, several political decision-makers, from the President to the Secretary of State, have sought to clarify whether they intervened in the case of the twins treated at Santa Maria. But among the statements, almost everyone assumes that they either did not know the case, or do not know how to answer several of the mysteries that surround it.
“I don’t have the slightest idea”, “I don’t have an exact memory”, “I don’t comment”, “I have no knowledge”.
From the Presidency to the Ministry of Health, from hospitals to political decision-makers, no one can explain many of the mysteries that have surrounded the case of the twins’ million-dollar treatment. At the same time, since Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s surprise statement to the country at the beginning of the week, the list of political protagonists in this process, which is being investigated by the Public Ministry, has become increasingly evident.
From Nuno Rebelo de Sousa, who was the main catalyst for the intervention of the Presidency of the Republic in this process, to Marcelo, who provided additional clarifications to the Government, through Marta Temido, former minister responsible for this portfolio, and Lacerda Sales, former Secretary of State for Health, and even reaching the resigning Prime Minister who, this Wednesday, explained that his office acted as “we usually do”, “period”.
These doubts remain. Why was Zolgensma, the medicine used to treat type 1 spinal muscular atrophy – which costs two million euros per patient – used in this case, even in the face of opposition from the hospital’s neuropediatricians? How was it that special authorization for the use of this medicine was given in two days (on a Saturday, when Infarmed was closed)? Why was the million-dollar medicine, which at the time had not entered the market in Portugal, used, even though “there was no therapeutic advantage”, as former president of Infarmed José Aranda da Silva explained to CNN Portugal? Why was the matter referred to the Government after the hospital had informed the Presidency that “priority” would be given to residents in Portugal?
Among the questions, these are the 11 protagonists and the story of their involvement in the case.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
“How was it? What happened next? Why did the procedure come out? I don’t have the slightest idea”
The President of the Republic began by saying that he did not remember the case, but this Monday he explained that, on October 21, 2019, he received an email from his son presenting the situation of the Portuguese-Brazilian twins and asking about “whether treatment was possible” at Santa Maria Hospital – which until that date had not responded to the family, after Hospital Dona Estefânia had raised objections.
( … )
Marcelo, who guarantees that he was “neutral” in this order, also rejected having spoken to his son about the matter. “What I said, I said. If, at the time, I said I hadn’t said it, it’s because I didn’t say it.”
What happened after the matter left the Presidency? “How was it? What happened next? Why did the procedure come out? I don’t have the slightest idea (…) I don’t follow what happens next. It is neither possible to follow, nor is it desirable to follow”, said the President of the Republic on Monday.
Nuno Rebelo de Sousa
“I have nothing to comment, thank you”
The son of the President of the Republic was the catalyst for all the intervention linked to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in the case. He sent an email to his father on October 21 explaining that “a group of friends from the family of the two twin children had gotten together and were trying, with all their might, for them to be treated in Portugal” and, two days later, he received a response from Maria João Ruela, the President’s social affairs consultant.
( … )
Fernando Frutuoso de Melo
The head of the Civil House of the President of the Republic was responsible for coordinating the response to Nuno Rebelo de Sousa’s request for information. He delegated the task to Maria João Ruela of obtaining information from Santa Maria, responded to the twins’ father about the fact that a response from the hospital to the family’s requests was not “foreseeable” and sent two letters on the matter to the Government, one to the chief of staff to the Prime Minister and another to the office of the Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities.
( … )
After this response, Rebelo de Sousa insisted on the matter again. “He asked Dr. Maria João Ruela again, who confirmed, in the same and exact terms, what she had said in writing”. After the second response, Nuno Rebelo de Sousa addressed the head of the Civil House, highlighting that the situation was being “very distressing” for the family, with Frutuoso de Melo, according to Marcelo’s report, just “ confirmed the information received from the consultant”.
So far, the son of the President of the Republic has ignored questions about what his relationship with the twins would be. “I have nothing to comment, thank you”, he told CNN Portugal on November 24th.
Maria João Ruela
Since April 2016, the former journalist has been a consultant at the Civil House of the President of the Republic with responsibility for social affairs. It was she who, according to Marcelo, inquired at the Santa Maria Hospital about the possibility of the children being treated there. In these contacts, she found out that the twins’ case was “received”, but that several cases of the same type were being analyzed, namely patients admitted and followed up in Portuguese hospitals. “The response capacity is, naturally, very limited and depends entirely on medical decisions by the hospital and Infarmed”.
( … )
António Lacerda Sales
The doctor held the position of Secretary of State for Health during the period in which the million-dollar treatment of the Portuguese-Brazilian twins took place at Santa Maria and, as documents from the clinical process obtained by CNN Portugal show, it was he who requested Santa Maria to provide the first consultation of both children.
The documents state that this first consultation was “requested by the Secretary of State to Professor Ana Isabel Lopes”, the director of the Pediatrics department at Santa Maria. But this is not the only time that the former ruler’s name appears in clinical documents associated with this case.
There are two other documents, clinical information and a justification of the request for the medicine to Infarmed, which states that the request to the different departments was made by Lacerda Sales.
( … )
Marta Temido
The former Minister of Health has already highlighted that she “did not give any guidance on the treatment” of the twins and that “she had no contact with the President of the Republic regarding this case”.
In an interview with Público and Renascença, she said that she needed to “go and redo the documentary circuit” of what she would eventually have known about the case and highlighted that the request for verification coming from the Presidency of the Republic regarding the twins’ case was sent to the Ministry of Health along with other requests. “It’s the normal circuit. It was normal what the Ministry did to this document, which came from the Prime Minister’s office and channeled a document from the Civil House of the Presidency of the Republic”, she states.
But the director of Neuropediatrics at Santa Maria Hospital, Levy Gomes, said in an interview with TVI that the referral of the Portuguese-Brazilian twins was not “normal” and that they benefited from rights that other children did not have. “I believe my colleague 100%,” he said, referring to a third person who would be involved in scheduling the appointments. “She says there were phone calls from Minister Marta Temido’s secretary and she wrote that there was pressure from the Secretary of State.”
( … )
The twins’ parents
( … )
The answer comes after TVI/CNN Portugal had access to a video that shows the children’s mother admitting the existence of a “cunha” wedge. “We used our contacts. That’s where the pistol came in.
I knew the President’s daughter-in-law, who knew the Minister of Health, who sent an email to the hospital and said: ‘What about the girls? They started to receive orders from above,” she said.
Jamila Madeira
“Nothing with me. Clinical cases didn’t pass through my office”
The former Deputy Secretary of State and Health also highlighted that she has no knowledge of the case. “In my office we have never been aware of any specific clinical case, nor associated with this pathology, disease, medication or other,” she said, speaking to Renascença.
( … )
Luís Pinheiro
“That concern, I don’t have an exact memory”
It was to Luís Pinheiro, at the time the hospital’s clinical director, that several neuropediatricians hand-delivered a letter, dated November 28, 2019, with concerns and objections to the million-dollar treatment administered to the twins. Speaking to TVI/CNN, the doctor said he did not remember the letter: “I don’t have an exact memory of this concern. We are in 2023 and we are talking about 2019 and a lot has happened along the way.”
In an interview this Wednesday, António Levy Gomes, director of the Neuropediatrics service at Santa Maria Hospital, revealed that it was this clinical director who was the interlocutor of the external pressures that would eventually lead to the treatment of the twins.
“He is the one who knows everything, he is the key person, he is the pivot between the Ministry, Dr. Rebelo de Sousa Sr., Dr. Rebelo de Sousa Jr., he is the one who received the message, which he transmits to my director, who marks the consultation”.
( … )
Daniel Ferro
“I don’t remember any letter”
Ferro, who held the position of administrator of CHULN in 2019 and 2020, was the person to whom the controversial letter of opposition from pediatric neurologists to the treatment was addressed. To TVI, he replied that “he doesn’t remember any letter”. Regarding the arguments of the doctors, in the same letter, who expressed dissatisfaction with the existence of deficiencies in terms of resources and yet millions were spent on treatment, Daniel Ferro responded that “there has never been a lack of money for any project, not even for medicines” .
( … )
António Costa
“We do what we usually do with that expedient”
The resigning Prime Minister confirmed during Wednesday afternoon that he received a communication from the Civil House of the Presidency of the Republic and that the twins’ process followed the usual procedure: We do what we usually do with this file: there is a referral to the ministries competent in the matter. Period”, he said, in Porto.
( … )
A country where criminals and the powerful are systematically protected to the detriment of victims and its citizens is the definition of a dictatorship, which is why Portugal should leave the EU.
PORTUGAL ROBBED ME €130.000 EUR AND SIX YEARS OF MY LIFE!
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