In a statement sent to Lusa, the PP's coordinator on the committee, Cecília Meireles, said that the reason had to do with Portugal's constitutional arrangements.


The constitution, she wrote, "establishes a political regime of a semi-presidential nature, in which the Assembly of the Republic serves as a check on the Government, but the President of the Republic is not answerable to parliament."


The Communist Party had submitted a request that called for a written testimony from the head of state on meetings he had with the disgraced former chief executive of BES, Ricardo Salgado, last year. The Socialist Party and Left Block had also said they intended to submit similar requests.


That followed a letter sent by Salgado to the committee in which he referred to two meetings with the president last year, as well as another with the prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho. In the wake of those comments, the president felt moved to issue a statement stressing that he had in their wake merely repeated guidance issued by the Bank of Portugal as to the state of BES and the group.