Hernâni Dias says “conscience is clear”
Secretary of State for Local Administration Hernâni Dias has conceded defeat in the face of rising calls for his resignation.
The furore over his opening two companies that could potentially benefit from the land law his ministry was drawing up was simply too great. Even PSD supporters were suspicious.
Dias however claims his conscience is “absolutely clear”. His resignation was designed to ‘protect the stability of the government, and his family’, he said – and he is automatically suspending his mandate as an MP, in order to be heard by “the competent authorities”, something the other MP in deep disgrace this week has not done.
In his letter of resignation which was instantly accepted by the prime minister, Mr Dias said: “I would like to reiterate that my resignation has nothing to do with any fear of clarifying the issues that have been reported by the media. Quite the contrary, I renew my willingness and full availability to provide all clarifications to the competent authorities,” he said.
He is eager to “put an end to the misinformation that has been spread”, he said, and will readily agree to be questioned in parliament.
According to Dias, he is being confronted by “a wave of news that contains falsehoods, distortions and unjustified insinuations”.
To a certain extent, this is much what MP Miguel Arruda said, before leaving parliament for the Azores on self-imposed “psychological leave”.
Since then however, it is understood that further suitcases have been found – this time in parliament – that match the description of those ‘lost’ by unfortunate fellow airline passengers..
Back to Dias, the damaging land law news was broken by RTP (state news channel) last Friday, a week after the same channel reported that the MP was being investigated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, suspected of having received ‘kickbacks’ for decisions made when he was mayor of Bragança.
