Lisbon, Sept. 25, 2025 (Lisboa) - The Budget, Finance and Public Administration Committee (COFAP)  gave a favourable opinion on Thursday on the choice of Álvaro Santos Pereira as governor of the Bank of Portugal, with the PS deciding to abstain.

The BoP's Organic Law obliges parliament to issue a reasoned opinion before the executive formalises the appointment of the governor, a document that was voted on today in COFAP.

The PSD, CDS-PP, Chega, and IL parliamentary groups voted in favour of the report. The PS abstained.

The Socialist bench proposed that the conclusions include a reference to the political freedom of BdP employees, to make it clear that the governor cannot limit ‘rights, freedoms and guarantees’; however, the initiative was rejected, with the PSD, CDS-PP, Chega, and IL voting against.

The final note that the PS wanted to include stated: ‘The Assembly of the Republic emphasises, in this regard, that the appointee, as governor of the Bank of Portugal, must guide his actions by simply complying with the provisions of the Bank of Portugal's Rules of Conduct, with respect for the constitutional principles enshrined, which guarantee all citizens the right to political participation, with strict and exceptionally provided limitations, and which in no way affect the employees and agents of the Bank of Portugal.’

The basic document issuing the positive opinion, which was eventually approved without amendments, was drafted by Chega MP Eduardo Teixeira.

The document states that the Budget, Finance and Public Administration Committee, based on ‘the answers given to the questions posed’ and ‘the scrutiny’ of Álvaro Santos Pereira's biographical note, recognises that the economist has the ‘technical competence and experience’ to fill the post, succeeding Mário Centeno.

The PS's proposed amendment to the report related to the fact that, during Santos Pereira's parliamentary hearing at COFAP on 17 September as part of the appointment process, the economist said that central bank officials should not be involved in active politics to safeguard the institution's independence.

Ahead of today's vote, PS MP Marina Gonçalves argued that ‘it would be pertinent’ for the report to include in its conclusions ‘an abstract principle’ that the exercise of the governor's functions should not jeopardise any limitations on ‘rights, freedoms and guarantees’.

PSD MP Hugo Carneiro said that it would be ‘good form’ to maintain the methodology adopted during the appointment of Mário Centeno in 2020, limiting the report to a description of what happened at the meeting. Regarding the PS's proposed amendment, he considered that the issue ‘has been overtaken’ by the fact that the document includes statements in which Santos Pereira guarantees that he will not ask for anyone's party affiliation at the BdP.

CDS-PP MP Paulo Núncio also criticised the inclusion of the paragraph proposed by the PS, considering that it made ‘no sense’.

The report transcribes a passage in which Santos Pereira says: "Regarding my book, in relation to party affiliation among Banco de Portugal employees. I obviously don't, it's a question that I'm not going to ask anyone at the Bank of Portugal for their party affiliation. Now, I understand that anyone working at the Bank of Portugal shouldn't be involved in active politics, okay? And so, if someone at the Bank of Portugal decides they want to participate, decides they want to work actively with parties, I think that's a question that has to be looked at."

Álvaro Santos Pereira served as Economy Minister from 2011 to 2013 in Passos Coelho's PSD/CDS-PP government. He was chief economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) when, on July 24 this year, the government of Luís Montenegro (PSD-CDS-PP) announced its choice to succeed Centeno.

According to the Bank of Portugal's Organic Law, the governor is appointed by resolution of the Council of Ministers, at the proposal of the member of the government responsible for finance, after the government has received a ‘reasoned opinion from the competent committee of the Assembly of the Republic’, in this case COFAP. It was in the context of this opinion that Álvaro Santos Pereira was heard in parliament on 17 September.

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