Portuguese police have arrested the chief of staff of Prime Minister António Costa while making multiple raids of public buildings and other properties as part of a widespread corruption probe, the prosecutor's office said Tuesday.
An investigative judge issued arrest warrants for Vítor Escária, Costa’s chief of staff, the mayor of Sines, and three other people because they represented a flight risk and to protect evidence, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
It said that the Minister of Infrastructure João Galamba and head of the country’s environmental agency were among those named as suspects.
The judge is investigating alleged malfeasance, corruption of elected officials, and influence peddling related to lithium mines concessions near Portugal’s northern border with Spain, and plans for a green hydrogen plant and data center in the southern coastal town of Sines.
The raids included the premises of the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Sines town council, private homes and offices.
The prosecutor’s office said that the probe has determined that the “suspects invoked the name of the prime minister” when carrying out their allegedly illicit activities.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa has said he is resigning amid an investigation into into alleged irregularities committed by his administration in handling lithium mining and hydrogen projects in the country.
Costa announced the decision in a televised statement after meeting President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Tuesday.
The 62-year-old Costa, Portugal’s Socialist leader since 2015, defended his innocence.
“The duties of prime minister are not compatible with any suspicion of my integrity,” he told a press conference. “In these circumstances, I have presented my resignation to the president of the republic.”
Costa, who won a third consecutive term as prime minister after his party secured a surprise absolute majority in a snap general election held in January 2022, said he had stepped down despite having been “completely willing to dedicate myself with all my energy to fulfilling the mandate until the end of this legislature”. He also said he would not be running in any forthcoming elections.
His announcement came after the Portuguese press reported that at least five people had been detained, including Costa’s chief of staff, Vítor Escária, and Costa’s friend, the business consultant Diogo Lacerda Machado.
The public prosecutor’s office then revealed that Costa himself was being investigated, adding the prime minister’s “name and authority” had been cited by suspects questioned during the investigation.
Rebelo de Sousa confirmed that he had accepted Costa’s resignation and would be meeting party leaders later this week. The president will then have to decide whether to dissolve parliament and call an election, or whether to allow Costa’s socialists, who have a majority in parliament, to form a new government.
In January this year, prosecutors said that they were looking into allegations of corruption relating to lithium and hydrogen projects but did not name any suspects.
The investigation into the alleged “misuse of funds, active and passive corruption by political figures, and influence peddling” involves lithium mining concessions in the north of the country. It is also investigating a hydrogen production project and data centre to be built by the company Start Campus in Sines, a town about 100km (62 miles) south of Lisbon.
In a statement released on Tuesday, prosecutors said 42 premises had been searched by police and staff from its Criminal Investigation and Action Department.
It confirmed that the addresses searched “in order to identify and seize documents and others relevant evidence” had included “spaces used by the head of the prime minister’s office”, the two ministries and the Sines town council.
Citing flight risk and the possibility that illegal activity could continue, prosecutors said arrest warrants had been issued for Costa’s chief of staff, the mayor of Sines, and two executives at Start Campus.
Prosecutors also said that Portugal’s infrastructure minister, João Galamba, had been indicted as part of the investigation, as had the president of the executive board of the Portuguese Agency for the Protection of the Environment (APA).
In May, the APA approved a mining project for lithium, an essential metal for the manufacturing of electric batteries. A second project was given the green light at the start of September.
Earlier this year, Rebelo de Sousa told the government to clean up its act after a separate scandal around state-owned airline TAP.
Opposition politicians called for him to resign as news of the searches and arrests broke.
The conservative CDS-People’s party urged Costa to step down, saying “given the seriousness of the current situation and the bankruptcy of the socialist government , the prime minister must immediately submit his resignation”.
André Ventura, the leader of the far-right Chega party also said Costa had to resign in order to end “the wave of suspicion” and to allow Portugal to renew itself.
But Costa’s former allies in the Communist party and the Left Bloc called for the facts to be investigated before any conclusions were drawn.
“Democracy demands that there be no power above the law,” said the Left Bloc MP Pedro Filipe Soares. “Find out what there is to find out, investigate what there is to investigate. Justice must be quick, swift and transparent.”
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