Prime Minister of Portugal resigns after corruption investigation

The Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, presented his resignation this Tuesday, after the Prosecutor’s Office included him in an investigation for alleged crimes of prevarication and corruption linked to the lithium and green hydrogen sector within the Government, although he has not been charged for the moment.

“I understand that dignity is not compatible with any suspicion (…) The dignity of the prime minister’s functions is not compatible with any suspicion about his integrity (…) that is why, obviously, I have submitted my resignation,” Costa announced after meeting with the president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

From the Sao Bento Palace, headquarters of the Portuguese Assembly, Costa began his intervention before the media showing his “surprise” because the Prosecutor’s Office has included him in said investigation. “I close a stage with a clear conscience,” he declared, while ensuring that he will collaborate with Justice “in everything he deems necessary.”

Costa has stressed on several occasions that the position of prime minister is incompatible with any type of suspicion about his honorability, while at the same time he has stressed that he leaves without any charge of conscience for the commission of any “illegal” or “reprehensible” act. In response to questions from the media regarding his political future, Costa has announced that he will not run in the next elections.

Early on Tuesday, the Prosecutor’s Office carried out several searches, including the headquarters of the Ministries of Environment and Infrastructure, as well as several offices in the Sao Bento Palace, in Lisbon, for suspicions of corruption in the granting of a series of contracts. public related to the exploitation of lithium deposits and a project to produce energy with hydrogen.

The Police also carried out searches at the official residence of the prime minister, to examine the office of his chief of staff, Vítor Escária, who has been arrested, as has the mayor of Sines, the socialist Nuno Mascarenhas, and the businessman Diogo Lacerda Machado, a close friend of Costa.

The searches of several hours at the Environment and Infrastructure headquarters culminated in the accusation of those responsible, Duarte Cordeiro and Joao Galamba, respectively.

Source: dpa

(Referential image source: Kay Nietfeld / dpa)

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