2024-02-09 06:42:18
One month before the legislative election in Portugal, the country is still reeling from the political crisis triggered by the brutal resignation of its Prime Minister, Antonio Costa. At the origin of his decision? A dark affair of corruption relating to the flourishing market for the exploration of lithium (one of the great riches of Portugal of tomorrow) and “green hydrogen” in which some of his relatives are involved, including his chief of staff and one of his main advisors and friends, not to mention his own infrastructure minister.
The name of the Prime Minister had even appeared in the list of people directly implicated by the public prosecutor following intercepted conversations between the suspects. Until the same public prosecutor pitifully admitted its error: it was not the head of government, but his economy minister with almost the same name, Antonio Costa Silva. However, the Prime Minister did not change his mind, he left, declaring that he would leave it to justice. Fully confident in his ability to prove his innocence, he nevertheless indicated that he would no longer exercise political responsibility in his country.
Scandals and resignations
«This resignation represents a test for Portuguese democracy, as the fiftieth anniversary of the “carnation revolution”, April 25, 1974, looms. affirms Yves Léonard, French historian, specialist in Portugal. In the background of this political crisis, an increasing rivalry between the president (since 2016) Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, former member of the Social Democratic Party (center right), and his prime minister (since 2015), secretary general of the Socialist Party.
He won the 2022 legislative elections hands down, even obtaining an improbable absolute majority. The two pillars of Portuguese political life have, however, drifted apart in recent months over the issue of “TAPgate”, the national airline in the process of being privatized and whose name has been linked to various scandals and resignations within the government.
Chega takes advantage of the harmful situation
«The atmosphere is deleterious », confides Yves Léonard again. The president chooses to dissolve the Assembly and call elections when he could have simply changed the prime minister. The Portuguese are perplexed. They will have to vote on March 10 without probably even knowing the conclusions of the investigation behind the resignation of Antonio Costa, at a time when the far-right party Chega (“Enough”, created in 2019), in ambush, capitalizes on the theme of elite corruption by spreading its slogan on the walls of towns and villages: “Portugal needs a big clean-up. » Polls already predict a new breakthrough for André Ventura’s party, propelled to the rank of third force in the country, with 12 elected to the national Parliament.
Sunday, February 4, the regional legislative elections took place in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores, a ballot with a test value. Chega obtained five deputies there while there were only two in the previous Legislative Assembly of this autonomous region of Portugal.
#Portugal #upcoming #elections #parasitized #scandals