Opposition members of the first parliamentary committee of inquiry into CGD had wanted to seek certain documents from the bank relating the run-up to the appointment last year of former chairman, António Domingues, before the major capital injection carried out this year, but the bid was blocked.

The Socialist Party and its allies “killed any possibility of the Portuguese knowing what happened at CGD," Hugo Soares, a Social Democrat member of the committee, told journalists. He also accused the three parties of denying the inquiry “the possibility that two higher courts gave tis committee of having access to documentation in which it could understand what happened to CGD.”

Immediately afterwards, People's Party deputy João Almeida accused the “radical left” parties of “preventing parliament from fulfilling its function” of scrutinising the government.

As a result, both opposition parties have declared that they will not take part in any hearings before the end of the term of the first committee, in July.

The first committee of inquiry was set up to focus on the management of and lending at CGD since 2000. It was initially to report by end-March but its term has since been extended.

Another committee of inquiry has been set up in the meantime specifically to assess the appointment of Domingues and his subsequent resignation. Its brief is to look into the events surrounding Domingues’ short tenure at the bank, the involvement of the minister of finance, Mário Centeno, in appointing Domingues with a much-increased salary and bonus, and exempting him from submitting statements on his income and assets to date.

The laws covering parliamentary inquiries allow two committees to operate simultaneously in the same area, provided they have different objectives.