Luís Montenegro’s Spinumviva saga – the furore about a family firm that has already sparked one general election – appears to have come to an end with the realisation that all the effort the prime minister has made to maintain secrecy over the company’s clients has come to nothing.
The Constitutional Court has rejected the PM’s bid to annul the case – citing a procedural issue (the court says the bid was simply put in ‘too late’). Thus, the moment has come – and the country will now (perhaps) understand what all the fuss has been about.
The Spinumviva controversy marked last year, and forced the prime minister (who no longer was associated with the company, due to his parliamentary position) to even remove his wife, Carla, from the list of shareholders.
But he always held out for the right to keep the names of the company clients ‘secret’, arguing every which way, including suggesting that the court rulings were “excessive” and “unconstitutional”.
So now we wait for what ‘may be a bombshell’, or may, ultimately, be nothing very apparently relevant at all.
What this judicial saga has shown however is that ‘the separation of powers’ is still alive, and kicking.
Source material: SIC/ Lusa
