Company “contravenes government code” – tabloid
Right wing party CHEGA has submitted a motion of censure to the government, considering there are “very serious suspicions of incompatibility” on the part of prime minister Luís Montenegro.
All of this refers to the ‘challenge’ laid down by CHEGA leader André Ventura over the weekend, to which Mr Montenegro does not seem to have responded in the form which Mr Ventura would have liked.
The leader of government has, nonetheless, continued to insist that the issue is ‘absurd’.
It relates to a company, held by the PM’s wife and sons, which buys and sells property. CHEGA’s argument is that the company stands to gain from the recently revised land law.
The prime minister is not now connected to the company (he renounced his partnership in 2022), and as such he says he can see no conflict of interest.
But Correio da Manhã today runs with the headline that the company does indeed violate the government ‘code of conduct’ (brought in under PS Socialists to reduce the risks of corruption in public office), and should have been disbanded, or at least suspended, while Mr Montenegro is active in politics.
Paulo Batalha of the Frente Cívica corruption watchdog tells the paper: “The prime minister is violating the Code of Conduct of his own government (…) The business of his family poses an infinite potential for conflict of interests because it is impossible to scrutinise who it is selling its services to, and in what conditions.
“As such, Luís Montenegro is obliged to take immediate measures necessary to resolve the conflict of interests – and that measure is extinguishing the company”.
CHEGA’s argument throughout this has been that while former secretary of state Hernâni Dias was obliged to fall on his sword due to a family business that might have benefited from the reform of the land law, Mr Montenegro, up until now, hasn’t. Yet his family’s company stands hypothetically just as much to gain from the revision of the land law.
As CHEGA has been assailed by bad press in recent weeks, many have seen the fuss the party is making as a way of ‘diverting attentions’.
The censure motion, for example, has been entitled: “For the end of a Government without integrity, led by a Prime Minister under serious suspicion”. CHEGA is effectively calling for the resignation of the entire government – something that will certainly not be happening.
But that does not detract from the truth that things are far from ‘clear’ or even straightforward.
While PS Socialists will not be supporting the motion of censure, leader Pedro Nuno Santos nonetheless says it is very important that the PM ‘comes clean’ and gives all the necessary answers. It is a question of transparency, he stressed, suggesting the situation as it stands looks very similar to that which led to the resignation of Hernâni Dias – yet it appears to be being dealt with very differently.
CHEGA has been much more vocal in its criticism, insisting that the company – Spinumviva – could do business with public entities.
Whatever happens, CHEGA’s motion looks doomed to fail: PS, Bloco de Esquerda and PCP communists have said they will be voting against it, as will the entirety of the government bench.
According to rules of procedure, a debate on a motion of censure begins on the third parliamentary day following its presentation, meaning it will take place on Friday (February 21).
