Portuguese
minister resigns after threat to give journalists 'a good slap'
Joao
Soares made the comment in response to a critical editorial in the
Publico newspaper that claimed his appointment was ‘inexplicable’
Agence France-Presse
Saturday 9 April
2016 06.58 BST
Portugal’s culture
minister resigned on Friday after triggering a social media storm by
threatening to give two journalists a “good slap” on his Facebook
page.
Joao Soares, the son
of a former Portuguese president, made the comments about journalists
Augusto Seabra et Vasco Pulido Valente after he was criticised in a
stinging editorial in the Publico newspaper.
“A good slap would
do them some good. And me as well,” Soares wrote on Thursday
morning, sparking angry criticism and calls for him to resign.
He later defended
himself saying he had “reacted not to opinions but to insults”
and prime minister Antonio Costa was forced to apologise to the two
journalists on his behalf.
Soares resigned on
Friday for reasons of “deep solidarity with the government and its
left-wing political project”, he said in a statement published by
the Lusa news agency.
In the editorial
that angered Soares, Seabra said his appointment was “inexplicable”
and his ministerial style was marked by “cronyism, authoritarianism
and coarseness”.
The minister’s
resignation comes a day after the head of Portugal’s armed forces
resigned after the number two in the country’s military college
admitted telling parents of young cadets to withdraw their sons if
they were gay “to protect them from the other students”.
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