Opposition throws airport ball back in government’s court

The leader of the opposition PSD party has thrown the decision over the site and future of Lisbon’s new international airport back into the government’s court.

Luís Montenegro says that construction on Lisbon’s new international airport should have begun six years ago and adds that the government has tried to deflect responsibility for the decision onto the PSD.
“I want to make my position clear: the PSD is a responsible party, it realises that these strategic, structural works deserve a broad consensus, but we are not going to switch roles”, he said, adding: “It is the Government’s job to govern, we’re here to be a responsible opposition”.
“After seven years, not even improvement works at Portela have got off the ground”, he said referring to the chaos at Lisbon airport’s arrivals which he described as “intolerable”.
“I call on the government to first sort out General Humberto Delgado Airport (Lisbon) with better conditions so that the economy and tourism doesn’t lose out as it has done.”
The prime minister and president of the PSD had a meeting at the prime minister’s official residence São Bento for three and a half hours on Friday. It was the first meeting between the two.
António Costa described the meeting as a “fairly pleasant chat” in which various topics were covered, including the new airport.