Government goes Thursday; parliament on January 15
Portugal’s president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has said that he will formalise the resignation of the government next Thursday, December 7, pointing to the dissolution of parliament roughly a month later, on January 15.
“In principle, the last Council of Ministers will be on the 7th and, therefore, the resignation will take place on the 7th in the evening,” he told journalists on the sidelines of a visit to the Food Bank against Hunger in Lisbon, which is involved in a nationwide collection drive over the long weekend.
“I have prolonged a little what could end after this weekend, since the final vote on the State Budget is over,” Marcelo admitted, explaining “there were some important votes for the PRR (plan for resilience and recovery)” that “needed to be finished” and that is why, “with the PRR in mind”, he left the formalisation of the whole process until next week.
“That is also why the dissolution of the Assembly (parliament), which is on the 15th (of January), has been designed to allow for the final drafting of the Budget, which (will be) towards the end of the year,” he added, noting that he also wanted to give parliament “time to re-examine” the Statutes of professional bodies, should he decide to veto them.
Portugal’s outgoing prime minister, António Costa, submitted his resignation to president Marcelo on November 7, due to a judicial investigation into the installation of a data centre in Sines and lithium and hydrogen business which has resulted in the Public Prosecutor’s Office opening an autonomous enquiry at the Supreme Court of Justice in which he is the target, writes Lusa.
Yesterday’s Financial Times ‘Europe Express’ newsletter, publishing under the sub-heading ‘bribery and corruption’, led with the situation of Mr Costa, explaining “How Portugal’s departing PM Costa hopes to clear his name”.
Very much as pundits here have been stressing, the FT’s impression is that “Mr Costa is determined to clear his name over the corruption scandal that felled him” as “doing so quickly might put him back in contention for a European job” (see below).
The brief article mentions how events in Portugal appeared “to erase his name from the list of contenders for jobs such as the next European Council president (…) but optimists in his inner circle say he could yet shake off the taint of sleaze. The prime minister has not been accused of wrongdoing in the “Operation Influencer” case”.
“Costa’s allies would like to see the supreme court close the case and exonerate him before a general election on March 10, which would also aid his yet-to-be-picked successor as Socialist leader”, the paper goes on, admitting that the wheels of justice “move slowly in Portugal (…) The country’s attorney general Lucília Gago, who was appointed by Costa, has ways to hurry things along, but she is guarding the independence of prosecutors”, says the paper – adding, again as many have stressed in Portugal, the investigation “is not even half done, the possibility of more surprises remains.”
President of European Parliament in Portugal says Costa “very experienced” on European level
Visiting Portugal today for initiatives involving young people, president of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola has “refused to be drawn on Portugal’s political crisis”, say reports, but she has described António Costa as “very experienced” on the European level. Ms Metsola also told reporters that there are still “many months to go” before the European elections, “and that speculation is not necessary“, writes SIC Notícias.
Source material: LUSA/ Financial Times/ SIC Notícias
