Paper edition updated story:
PM resigns following corruption swoop on inner circle
Two key ministers cited, chief of staff arrested along with PM’s ‘best friend’
Portugal’s prime minister António Costa has resigned following a corruption swoop on his inner circle.
No less than 40 searches got underway on Tuesday morning, led by public prosecutors, into ‘suspicions of corruption’ in government business concerning lithium and hydrogen prospection.
The homes of ministers João Galamba and Duarte Cordeiro were targeted, along with the PM’s official residence and the home of his long-term ‘best friend’ and former political colleague Diogo Lacerda Machado, who is among those arrested.
The five arrested also include the PM’s chief of staff Vítor Escaria, and the mayor of Sines Nuno Mascarenhas.
All five were due to spend Tuesday night in police cells before being presented before magistrates.
Details of the investigation are being kept to a minimum – given that they concern a serving government – but authorities have opened a separate investigation into suspicions that the prime minister may have ‘facilitated business’ by ‘unblocking procedures’ with regard to lithium mines in Montalegre and Boticas.
Thus, the PM’s resignation – in which he stressed that he has all confidence in Justice and will collaborate completely. His conscience is clear, and he feels “no weight” of “having done anything censurable”. But “a prime minister suspected of a crime has no conditions to remain in office”, and so his decision was made for him.
Picking up on the news, international reports refer to ‘controversies miring’ the government’s plans for green energy and lithium prospection, stressing the “low quality of elements set to be extracted and the disproportionate environmental damage expected from the operations”.
Business people may be dismayed by news of this hiatus, but certainly local communities threatened by mining will be heartened.
That said, it is completely unclear what happens next. Does the PM stay in office until a replacement is ‘found’ among what is left of his executive? Commentators think not. There have simply been too many scandals in this government to paper-over the fall of the prime minister and citing in a corruption investigation of two key ministers.
President Marcelo will ultimately decide; discuss the situation with his Council of State on Thursday, and then address the nation.
The problem is ‘timing’: this political crisis comes as the country is still trying to make use of EU recovery and resilience funding; is still trying to broker a truce in salary disputes eating away at the national health service – and needs to approve next year’s State Budget, a document that is deeply unpopular with large sections of society, and the political opposition.
President Marcelo has always stopped short of dissolving parliament ‘for the sake of stability’, but now stability itself has fallen off its perch. ND
Original online story:
Portugal’s prime minister António Costa has officially resigned.
Mr Costa’s resignation had been touted all morning as the country has been assailed by allegations of high-level corruption concerning lithium and hydrogen prospection, and the news that “a separate investigation” has been opened into suspicions that the prime minister himself had “facilitated business” in lithium mines in Montalegre and Boticas.
As commentators have said, “no country, no government can support a prime minister who is suspected of being a facilitator“.
Mr Costa was due to have spoken to the country at 2pm. At 2.24 television cameras were still rolling on an empty podium in São Bento Palace (the PM’s official residence)… and then he arrived.
The PM said that up until this morning he had every intention of carrying his mandate through to the end (due in 2026), but that “today, I was surprised with the information, confirmed by the press office of the Attorney General, that a criminal process has, or will be, opened against me”.
With “a clear conscience“, “no weight upon (him)” of “having done anything censurable“, he accepts that there is no way a prime minister under suspicion of a crime can remain in office, and thus he has tendered his resignation to President Marcelo, who accepted it.
No clarity has been given on the fate of the government, now that two key ministers are official suspects for the crimes of prevarication, active and passive corruption and the trafficking of influences. Nor is it clear when the prime minister will physically step down.
Questions from journalists hearing his speech as to whether or not President Marcelo would be dissolving parliament were met with the equivalent of “I don’t know”. This is almost certainly because President Marcelo himself will now need to address the nation.
Commenators will now be discussing ‘how long a resigning prime minister can stay in office’/ ‘what might happen next’.
Political pundit Ana Gomes has already posted: “Elections. Obviously. In January”.
What this means in terms of the immediate future of the country (the State Budget, due to be voted on at the end of the month; negotiations with doctors, nurses, teachers – all of which are at varying stages of impasse; the crisis in the health system – and a great deal more) is unclear. Both main parties (PS and PSD) are due to meet with President Marcelo tomorrow, ostensibly to discuss the 2024 State Budget, but clearly these new questions will be ‘on the table’, with the president making his decisions thereafter.
UPDATE: President Marcelo will be meeting with all parties tomorrow, specifically on the subject of ‘what now?’. Marcelo has convened a Council of State for Thursday afternoon, and will ‘address the nation’, once the meeting has concluded. ND
