Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa has resigned after being implicated in a Supreme Court corruption investigation into hydrogen and lithium deals. In the morning, investigators ordered searches of the ministries of infrastructure and the environment, as well as the headquarters of the presidency. The Minister of Infrastructure himself, João Galamba, is accused by magistrates from the Attorney General's Office of active and passive corruption, influence peddling and abuse of office. The investigation focuses on investments in green hydrogen and the Montalegre lithium mine in the north of the country. According to L'Expreso, Vítor Escária, the prime minister's chief of staff, Diogo Lacerda Machado, a businessman close to Costa, and Nuno Mascarenhas, the socialist mayor of Sines, are all in custody, along with the managers of some of the companies involved in the investigation.
Following the statements by the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Portuguese Prime Minister quickly called a press conference. He said that he was not aware of any proceedings against him, but that in any case he was resigning in order to preserve the integrity of the office he holds. As far as I know, I'm not a defendant, I don't know the files or the alleged acts,' said Costa, who said he had not yet been served with an indictment, 'but today I was surprised by the news, officially confirmed by the Public Prosecutor's Office, that criminal proceedings have been or will be initiated against me. I am, of course, fully prepared to cooperate with the judicial system in whatever way it deems necessary to uncover the whole truth. But he immediately clarified: 'The dignity of the office of Prime Minister is incompatible with the suspicion of having committed a criminal act, which is why I have, of course, submitted my resignation to the President of the Republic. Costa, who says he has a clear conscience and is waiting to learn more about what he is accused of, added that he would not wait until the end of the trial to return to politics: "I will not run for prime minister again. It is a phase of life that is over, criminal proceedings are rarely quick, so I would not wait for the conclusion of the criminal proceedings to draw another conclusion.
The judiciary has been investigating the government's handling of green energy issues for some time. And in a statement it said that several members of the executive 'are under investigation for crimes of corruption, malfeasance and influence peddling'. The prosecutor's office has also obtained four telephone intercepts from 2020 in which the prime minister's name is mentioned: this part of the investigation will have to be dealt with by the Supreme Court, which will open a separate file to carry out further checks on actual involvement. The investigation focuses on public investments in the energy sector, namely the green hydrogen project in Sines and the lithium project in Montalegre, in the north of the country, where one of the largest deposits in Europe has been discovered.
