Portuguese PM António Costa resigns amid corruption
inquiry
Police search socialist prime minister’s official
residence in investigation into alleged corruption
Sam Jones
in Madrid and agencies
Tue 7 Nov
2023 17.27 GMT
Portugal’s
socialist prime minister, António Costa, has resigned hours after prosecutors
examining alleged corruption involving lithium and “green” hydrogen deals
announced that he was under investigation and police searched dozens of
addresses, including his official residence and the environment and
infrastructure ministries.
Speaking on
Tuesday afternoon after two emergency meetings with Portugal’s president,
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Costa said he had submitted his resignation, adding he
had a “clear conscience” and “complete trust in justice” and how it worked.
“The duties
of prime minister are not compatible with any suspicion of my integrity,” he
told a press conference. “In these circumstances, I have presented my
resignation to the president of the republic.”
Costa, who
won a third consecutive term as prime minister after his party secured a
surprise absolute majority in a snap general election in January 2022, said he
had stepped down despite having been “completely willing to dedicate myself
with all my energy to fulfilling the mandate until the end of this
legislature”. He also said he would not be running in any forthcoming
elections.
His
announcement came after the Portuguese press reported that at least five people
had been detained, including Costa’s chief of staff, Vítor Escária, and Costa’s
friend, the business consultant Diogo Lacerda Machado.
The public
prosecutor’s office then revealed that Costa himself was being investigated,
adding the prime minister’s “name and authority” had been cited by suspects
questioned during the investigation.
Rebelo de
Sousa confirmed that he had accepted Costa’s resignation and would be meeting
party leaders on Wednesday. The president will then have to decide whether to
dissolve parliament and call an election, or whether to allow Costa’s
socialists, who have a majority in parliament, to form a new government.
In January
this year, prosecutors said they were looking into allegations of corruption
relating to lithium and hydrogen projects but did not name any suspects.
The
investigation into the alleged “misuse of funds, active and passive corruption
by political figures, and influence peddling” involves lithium mining
concessions in the north of the country. It is also investigating a hydrogen
production project and datacentre to be built by the company Start Campus in
Sines, a town about 60 miles south of Lisbon.
In a
statement released on Tuesday, prosecutors said 42 premises had been searched
by police and staff from its Criminal Investigation and Action Department.
It
confirmed that the addresses searched “in order to identify and seize documents
and others relevant evidence” had included “spaces used by the head of the
prime minister’s office”, the two ministries and the Sines town council.
Citing
flight risk and the possibility that illegal activity could continue,
prosecutors said arrest warrants had been issued for Costa’s chief of staff,
the mayor of Sines, and two executives at Start Campus.
Prosecutors
also said that Portugal’s infrastructure minister, João Galamba, had been
indicted as part of the investigation, as had the president of the executive
board of the Portuguese Agency for the Protection of the Environment (APA).
In May, the
APA approved a mining project for lithium, an essential metal for the
manufacturing of electric batteries. A second project was given the green light
at the start of September.
Earlier
this year, Rebelo de Sousa told the government to clean up its act after a
separate scandal erupted around the state-owned TAP airline. The scandal, known
as TAPgate, led more than a dozen ministers and secretaries of state to leave
their positions.
The
controversy began almost a year ago after revelations that a TAP director was
given a €500,000 (£435,000) severance package. After leaving TAP, Alexandra
Reis was appointed head of the state-run air traffic control company NAV. Then
in early December she became junior minister at the Treasury.
Although
Costa’s former allies in the Communist party and the Left Bloc had called for
the facts to be investigated before any conclusions were drawn, other parties
issued swift calls for a new general election.
“There were
no longer conditions for António Costa to continue in office,” said Rui Rocha,
the leader of the Liberal Initiative party. “I don’t believe there is any other
solution than the dissolution of the assembly of the republic and elections so
that the Portuguese can have their say.”
André
Ventura, the leader of the far-right Chega party, also called for a fresh poll,
saying “any other solution will delay the country’s political process”.
Reuters and
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
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