Thursday
November 9, 2023
Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa has resigned amid a high-profile corruption scandal involving lithium and hydrogen deals.
“The dignity of the prime minister is not compatible with any suspicion about his integrity, his intelligent conduct and even less with the suspicion of the practice of any criminal act,” Costa told reporters on Tuesday from his official apartment in São Bento, November. 7).
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“I came to this level with a clear conscience. “
Costa is immersed in an investigation into irregularities in the awarding of lithium exploration contracts in northern Portugal and a hydrogen order in Sines.
His resignation comes after Portugal’s Supreme Court found that Costa was under formal investigation for alleged corruption and influence peddling.
Costa had full confidence in the judicial formula and promised to cooperate.
Earlier Tuesday, Portuguese police raided the residence of the socialist minister, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Infrastructure and other public offices, as well as personal residences.
Costa’s chief of staff, his personal adviser and the mayor of the municipality of Sines were arrested. Climate Minister Duarte Cordeiro and Infrastructure Minister João Galamba (former Secretary of State for Energy) are also under the supervision of Portuguese prosecutors.
Meanwhile, Portugal’s liberal party, Iniciativa Liberal (IL), has argued that early elections are the viable solution.
Costa has said he will run for re-election as prime minister.
For his part, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that dissolving parliament and calling new elections would be counterproductive, given existing monetary funds and the implementation of recovery funds.
Reacting to the corruption scandal, environmental NGO Climáximo claimed that Portugal’s renewable energy installation procedure has put public money in the hands of private industries, creating “the best situations for banal corruption,” Portuguese media reported.
Costa, who has been Portugal’s minister since 2015, won an absolute majority in 2022, after several years of governing with a minority government.
At the time, Costa praised him for boosting Portugal’s economy after years of crisis and for running one of the most successful Covid-19 vaccination programs in Europe.
Amid discussions about the pandemic-induced debt crisis, Costa drew attention in Brussels for calling a comment by Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra (current EU Commissioner for Meteorology) “disgusting”.
He is also a close best friend of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, as evidenced by his lobbying efforts to get the so-called “Iberian exception” for fuel costs passed.
Costa’s call had also emerged as a candidate to succeed Charles Michel at the head of the European Council.
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EU co-legislators have reached a provisional agreement to make election and referendum campaigns more citizen-friendly and more resistant to foreign interference; However, few regulations will come into force in time for the 2024 European elections.