Splattered in the Influencer corruption affair, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa preferred to throw in the towel. He is the subject of a criminal investigation. His name would have been mentioned by the five accused in this case. But to everyone’s surprise, it could just be a mistake.
Published on :
1 min
With our correspondent in Lisbon, Marie-Line Darcy
In a wiretap included in the case against the resigning head of government, his name was confused with that of his Minister of the Economy, whose name is Antonio Costa e Silva.
The recorded conversation took place between Lacerda Machado, advisor and friend of the former head of government, and the boss of Start Campus, the company which wants to build a data center in Sines, south of Lisbon – a project of 3, 5 billion euros – and Lacerda Machado promises that he will talk to Antonio Costa about it, to unblock the file.
In reality, he is talking about the Minister of Economy Antonio Costa e Silva and not the Prime Minister Antonio Costa. The public prosecutor recognized the existence of a typo. It is surprising and in Portugal, we wonder: did Costa resign too quickly? Are there other, more solid evidence against him?
In addition, the lifting of corruption and embezzlement charges against the five defendants in the case to allow their release is surprising.
The President of the National Assembly, the socialist Santos Silva, called for justice to shed light on the affair by the early legislative elections next March.
Read alsoResignation of Portuguese Prime Minister following corruption scandal
