Former Foreign Minister João Gomes Cravinho, on Wednesday, left a word of support for the dismissed provider of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, Ana Jorge, who was accused by the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Maria do Rosário Ramalho, of having benefited herself. 

"A strong hug for Ana Jorge, an illustrious and honest servant of the public cause, with whom I had the privilege of working as Minister of Defense, first in the restructuring of Military Health and then in the Portuguese Red Cross", said Gomes Cravinho, who was Minister of Defense between 2018 and 2022, on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

"Nobody deserves this treatment, and much less her", he added.

Um forte abraço para a Ana Jorge, ilustre e proba servidora da causa pública, com quem tive o privilégio de trabalhar enquanto Ministro da Defesa, primeiro na restruturação da Saúde Militar e depois na Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa. Ninguem merece este tratamento, e muito menos ela.

— João Cravinho (@JoaoCravinho) May 8, 2024

At the center of the controversy, it should be recalled, are statements by the Minister of Labor and Social Security, who accused Ana Jorge and the managers of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa of having "benefited themselves".

"Those at the table were even given a raise. We were surprised. (...) they benefited themselves, not at all the people who are in the operation", criticized the minister, referring to the fact that most of the workers at the Santa Casa earn the minimum wage.

Ana Jorge has already vehemently denied the accusations and stated that "it is necessary to justify what the self-benefit is". She also recalled that 2023 was a period "of major internal reorganizations", in which "solutions were found for the workers, mainly improving those with lower salaries".

Ana Jorge took office on May 2, 2023, chosen by the previous socialist government of António Costa, and inherited an institution with serious financial difficulties, after years of pandemic and a process of internationalization of social games, carried out by the administration of the provider Edmundo Martinho, which may have caused losses in the order of 50 million euros.

After her dismissal, the provider wrote a letter to all the workers of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, in which she accused the government of having dismissed her "in a rude, arrogant and slanderous manner" and that she was taken by surprise.

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