With all political parties intent on garnering maximum support ahead of the municipal elections on Sunday, the prime minister has been stung by the curved ball of Spinumviva, back from the comparative dead to churn up further controversy.
For readers who may have missed the first few rounds of this saga, Spinumviva is the ‘family firm’ of the prime minister’s family that brought about the fall of his first government. The subsequent election victory of the PM’s coalition and the ‘preventative inquiry’ into Spinumiviva (a kind of probe to see if there is any case for the PM to answer) seemed to suggest that the matter was essentially over. But suddenly Sábado has published the ‘bombshell’ that investigators, headed by DCIAP (the department of investigation and penal action) want to open a criminal inquiry which will allow them access to the PM’s private bank and tax details.
According to reports, inquiries up till now, which have relied on open source information and ‘off-the-record conversations’, have hit an impasse that can only be overcome by more intrusive scrutiny.
All this comes with only three days left of intense political campaigning, as these municipal elections are being seen very much as a litmus test of citizens’ trust in the direction in which the country is heading.
To make matters even worse, the Attorney General’s Office has compounded the situation by issuing a short statement confirming that the Spinumviva inquiry remains open, as his office ‘awaits documentation’: “Therefore, at this time, there is no conviction formed that would allow the aforementioned preventive investigation to be closed, nor has anything been proposed to the Attorney General in this area”.
This is just what a prime minister taking part in endless political rallies does not need – and Mr Montenegro has made that perfectly clear.
Giving a statement to reporters, not allowing questions, he said: “I am completely calm, although absolutely shocked and even outraged by the content of the news, which, coming from someone connected to the process, constitutes a situation that is shameful, of procedural and democratic disloyalty, which is intolerable and which I do not accept in any way.”
The news “does not intimidate” him, said the PM, asking the Portuguese people “not to be led astray” by “shady manoeuvres three or four days before the end of an electoral campaign and a choice that they must make in complete freedom.
“I don’t know the source of this news, but I can guarantee that all the clarifications requested from me have been provided, and I will await their analysis and the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s ruling.
“The rest is simply a disgrace, and I’ll repeat: it’s a disgrace.”
Source material: LUSA/ Correio da Manhã citing Sábado
