That ugly “mess” that happened in Portugal. The Public Ministry appears to have made an error in the transcription of an interception that compromised the resigning prime minister, António Costa. This was reported by “CNN Portugal” and confirmed by several Portuguese media outlets. The interception refers to a conversation between the general director of Start Campus, Afonso Salema, and the socialist leader’s advisor, Diogo Lacerda Machado, in which the latter speaks of António Costa, referring to António Costa Silva, minister of Economy, almost the same name as the Prime Minister. According to investigators, Costa personally intervened to promote the interests of the Start Campus company.
In one of the phone calls reported in the investigation, Afonso Salema suggested that Lacerda Machado speak to someone in the government to ask the European Commission to change the data centers’ economic activity codes. According to «CNN», the Public Ministry acknowledged the error during the judicial interrogations that ended last night.
Costa is the target of an investigation by the Public Ministry together with the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba, and the president of the Portuguese Environment Agency, Nuno Lacasta, as part of the investigation into hydrogen and lithium agreements in Portugal dating back to 2019. Investigations are underway, in particular, regarding concessions for lithium research in the Romano and Barroso mines; a hydrogen plant project in Sines; the project to build a data center developed in the industrial and logistics area of Sines by the company Start Campus. Following the investigation, on November 7th António Costa submitted his resignation, guaranteeing that he was “totally unaware of the accusations and with a clear conscience”. However, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, accepted the resignation and called new elections for March 10, 2024, but decided to make them effective only after the approval of the budget law, which is still being debated in Parliament.
Source: IL Tempo
John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.
