news Portugal's lithium scandal: Public Ministry got the wrong name in wiretap

[Virgos Groove]

 

EDIT:

EDIT 2:

 

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by Virgos Groove

[Dear Reader]

PSD + CH + IL will rise so much during next elections. I’m so scared… 

Edited November 7, 2023 by Dear Reader

[Virgos Groove]

Just now, Dear Reader said:

PSD + CH + IL will rise so much during next elections. I’m so scared… 

Ventura is already presenting himself as "stately" for the next election... it is so over.

[CBC]

[redacted] should rot in jail forever but I doubt he'll even even be convicted... PS majority here we go again

[Taylena]

Ana Gomes is our only hope! Let's all vote for her fellow Portuguese ATRL users. 

[Dear Reader]

14 minutes ago, Virgos Groove said:

Ventura is already presenting himself as "stately" for the next election... it is so over.

 

5 minutes ago, Taylena said:

Ana Gomes is our only hope! Let's all vote for her fellow Portuguese ATRL users. 

I wish the left would unite themselves but we’re so currently apart. This is disastrous  It’s so over… Might even think of leaving. 

[Alaska.]

Portugal's right wing era, I fear.

 

 

Edited November 7, 2023 by Alaska.

[Shinning]

Me packing my bags and leaving to f*cking Germany or whatever

 

[Virgos Groove]

2 hours ago, Dear Reader said:

I wish the left would unite themselves but we’re so currently apart. This is disastrous  It’s so over… Might even think of leaving. 

We desperately need PNS, but Costa's replacement as PS leader will probably be... Medina. We are so doomed.

 

OT: Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt PS is beyond corrupt, but it's scary watching the Public Ministry take down, with a single press release, a PM with a majority government. Since the Galamba scandal, I've feared we were nearing 2016 Brazil levels of mess, and this pretty much confirms it.

[Movimento Perpétuo]

4 hours ago, Dear Reader said:

 

I wish the left would unite themselves but we’re so currently apart. This is disastrous  It’s so over… Might even think of leaving. 

come to Brazil

 

Jokes aside, things don't look good for Portugal into the next elections. The extreme right wing will have a field day with that (as if they aren't right now as since they're a very well known vultures)

[Dear Reader]

4 minutes ago, Electric Youth said:

come to Brazil

 

Jokes aside, things don't look good for Portugal into the next elections. The extreme right wing will have a field day with that (as if they aren't right now as since they're a very well known vultures)

I’d definitely consider if corruption wouldn’t be sky high now. Everything else besides corruption and criminality attracts me to that country. It’s a shame this just happened here though 

[tjspy]

I'll keep voting on IL pretending it's the last good one with some good economic vision and leave the country. Chega being predicted to have a bigger market share than SIC or TVI have right now is also something! 

 

Anyway, I think mainly PSD will get a boost from this and that's about it. We aren't usually a very dramatic country voting so I don't think nothing too shocking will happen besides PSD taking the lead.

[Virgos Groove]

Quote

The Prime Minister could not resist the suspicions of a process that he says he “never” heard about. Five people - including Costa's chief of staff and his best friend - were arrested this Tuesday. However, the investigation involving the head of Government may end early and without consequences.

 

Lawyer Tiago Melo Alves points out a hypothesis that he considers likely: Costa will not be accused and the case will be closed before the early elections.

 

“This process is already running autonomously in the Supreme Court of Justice. The facts are quite circumscribed and we have a target who is Prime Minister. This survey will be quick. The evidence is so weak, so fragile, that he may not even be considered a defendant”, says Tiago Melo Alves, claiming that the case could end up being archived before the elections.

Would it be far-fetched to call this a judicial coup? He was obviously gonna have to resign after two indicted ministers and an arrested chief of staff, but that press release laying suspicion on him was curiously timed, to say the least.

[Dear Reader]

2 minutes ago, Virgos Groove said:

Would it be far-fetched to call this a judicial coup? He was obviously gonna have to resign after two indicted ministers and an arrested chief of staff, but that press release laying suspicion on him was curiously timed, to say the least.

It really does look like Lula back in the day… I don’t know what to think about it, yet. 

[Virgos Groove]

14 minutes ago, Dear Reader said:

It really does look like Lula back in the day… I don’t know what to think about it, yet. 

Yeah, I'm trying to remain hopeful that I'm just overreacting, but this is what I've been fearing since the Galamba scandal (+ the local election and Rui Rio investigations, which were beyond murky as well). The 2016 Brazil parallels are uncanny.

[Komet]

Just realized I have zero clue what's going on with Portugals politics in general, can we get a quick TLDR/ELI5 ? 

[Virgos Groove]

2 hours ago, Komet said:

Just realized I have zero clue what's going on with Portugals politics in general, can we get a quick TLDR/ELI5 ? 

TL;DR: PM investigated for business deal, two ministers indicted, 5 people arrested, including his chief of staff and his best friend. PM resigns. President will now choose to tell PS to form new government, or he will call for an election. This latter option would mean a rightward shift in Portugal's politics.

 

The whole story is so long, so here's a slightly more detailed rundown:

• António Costa (Socialist Party, PS) was prime minister from 2015 until his resignation yesterday. His first government (2015-19) was supported by three left-wing parties (the communists, the bloquistas and the greens). His second government was a minority government, which fell in late-2021 after his budget proposal was reject by the left. He won a snap election in 2022 with an absolute majority, beginning his third government.
• Five people were detained yesterday:
  • Vítor Escária: Costa's chief of staff
  • Lacerda Machado: one of Costa's best friends
  • Nuno Mascarenhas: mayor of Sines
  • Rui Oliveira Neves and Afonso Salema: two businessmen
• Two ministers were indicted: João Galamba (minister of infrastructure) and Duarte Cordeiro (minister of the environment)
• The police also searched Costa's official residency (basically our equivalent of 10 Downing Street) and said in a press release he was suspected of being involved in a corrupt deal (he was not yet, however, formally accused of anything).

 

• Lacerda Machado is suspected of corrupting Vitor Escária and the other government officials to make the Government accept a megaproject in the city of Sines (a data center consting over 3.5B euros).
• The third PS government has been involved in a host of scandals, as well as worn down by the impact of infation and soaring rent prices. Still, the opposition is so terrible, that no party has been able to establish itself as a clear successor.
• Earlier this year, Galamba was involved in a gigantic scandal involving a secret meeting, a stolen computer, and violence in a government building (some real telenovela ****). I'm not gonna explain everything, but here's the rundown: Galamba quits, Costa rejects his resignation and puts his hands in the fire for him. The President, Marcelo, tells Costa his political future will be dependent on Galamba's, who stays as minister.

 

• Yesterday morning, completely out of nowhere, the police launched a massive operation, which lead to the arrests, indictments and searches I mentioned above.
• The PM met with the President for half an hour, and, cancelled his visit to Porto staying in Lisbon. Later, he met with the President for a second time, for 10 minutes.
• The PM held a press conference in the afternoon, where he resigned, saying that, tho he mantains his innocence, he can't remain as PM when there is an aura of suspicion, saying that's bad for politics. He will not run again as PM.
• The president now has three choices:
  • Dissolve parliament and call an election.
    • This would most likely lead to the rise of Chega, a far-right party, who might make a coalition with PSD, our 2nd biggest party, and IL, a neoliberal party. This would be Portugal's most rightward shift in decades.
  • Call for a new government:
    • This would mean PS's new leader would become PM, like how Liz Truss replaced Boris Johnson. The early front-runner is Pedro Nuno Santos, who is more left-wing than Costa and helped forge the Geringonça, the 2015-19 political arrangement I mentioned above.
  • Government of presidential iniciative:
    • The President chooses someone and tells them to form a new government. Hapenned three times in the 70s, but unlikely nowadays.

 

• Some people fear this may have been a judicial coup against the PS government. Because of two paragraphs in a press release, an absolute majority government might fall. A question rises: what if he's not indicted? What gives the Public Ministry the power to take down a government like this?

Edited November 8, 2023 by Virgos Groove

[Kitty Kat]

 

 

the way this is sending me... 

[Komet]

6 hours ago, Virgos Groove said:

TL;DR: PM investigated for business deal, two ministers indicted, 5 people arrested, including his chief of staff and his best friend. PM resigns. President will now choose to tell PS to form new government, or he will call for an election. This latter option would mean a rightward shift in Portugal's politics.

 

The whole story is so long, so here's a slightly more detailed rundown:

• António Costa (Socialist Party, PS) was prime minister from 2015 until his resignation yesterday. His first government (2015-19) was supported by three left-wing parties (the communists, the bloquistas and the greens). His second government was a minority government, which fell in late-2021 after his budget proposal was reject by the left. He won a snap election in 2022 with an absolute majority, beginning his third government.
• Five people were detained yesterday:
  • Vítor Escária: Costa's chief of staff
  • Lacerda Machado: one of Costa's best friends
  • Nuno Mascarenhas: mayor of Sines
  • Rui Oliveira Neves and Afonso Salema: two businessmen
• Two ministers were indicted: João Galamba (minister of infrastructure) and Duarte Cordeiro (minister of the environment)
• The police also searched Costa's official residency (basically our equivalent of 10 Downing Street) and said in a press release he was suspected of being involved in a corrupt deal (he was not yet, however, formally accused of anything).

 

• Lacerda Machado is suspected of corrupting Vitor Escária and the other government officials to make the Government accept a megaproject in the city of Sines (a data center consting over 3.5B euros).
• The third PS government has been involved in a host of scandals, as well as worn down by the impact of infation and soaring rent prices. Still, the opposition is so terrible, that no party has been able to establish itself as a clear successor.
• Earlier this year, Galamba was involved in a gigantic scandal involving a secret meeting, a stolen computer, and violence in a government building (some real telenovela ****). I'm not gonna explain everything, but here's the rundown: Galamba quits, Costa rejects his resignation and puts his hands in the fire for him. The President, Marcelo, tells Costa his political future will be dependent on Galamba's, who stays as minister.

 

• Yesterday morning, completely out of nowhere, the police launched a massive operation, which lead to the arrests, indictments and searches I mentioned above.
• The PM met with the President for half an hour, and, cancelled his visit to Porto staying in Lisbon. Later, he met with the President for a second time, for 10 minutes.
• The PM held a press conference in the afternoon, where he resigned, saying that, tho he mantains his innocence, he can't remain as PM when there is an aura of suspicion, saying that's bad for politics. He will not run again as PM.
• The president now has three choices:
  • Dissolve parliament and call an election.
    • This would most likely lead to the rise of Chega, a far-right party, who might make a coalition with PSD, our 2nd biggest party, and IL, a neoliberal party. This would be Portugal's most rightward shift in decades.
  • Call for a new government:
    • This would mean PS's new leader would become PM, like how Liz Truss replaced Boris Johnson. The early front-runner is Pedro Nuno Santos, who is more left-wing than Costa and helped forge the Geringonça, the 2015-19 political arrangement I mentioned above.
  • Government of presidential iniciative:
    • The President chooses someone and tells them to form a new government. Hapenned three times in the 70s, but unlikely nowadays.

 

• Some people fear this may have been a judicial coup against the PS government. Because of two paragraphs in a press release, an absolute majority government might fall. A question rises: what if he's not indicted? What gives the Public Ministry the power to take down a government like this?

Omg thank you for taking the time  🙏 What a mess, I agree with that last point. 

 

- This would most likely lead to the rise of Chega, a far-right party, who might make a coalition with PSD, our 2nd biggest party, and IL, a neoliberal party

 

Wait, aren't PSD social democrats (going by the abbreviation), why would they join the far-right? Unless I'm missing some context. Any chance of some kind of a left coalition?

[Virgos Groove]

26 minutes ago, Komet said:

Omg thank you for taking the time  🙏 What a mess, I agree with that last point. 

 

- This would most likely lead to the rise of Chega, a far-right party, who might make a coalition with PSD, our 2nd biggest party, and IL, a neoliberal party

 

Wait, aren't PSD social democrats (going by the abbreviation), why would they join the far-right? Unless I'm missing some context.

The name of many of our political parties usually doesn't match their ideology, as they were formed in the wake of the left-wing 1974 revolution.

 

The Socialist Party are the social-democrats, while the Social Democratic Party are the center-right.

 

Right now, the PSD is led by Luis Montenegro, who, despite all the Government scandals, still hasn't established himself as a true opposition leader. The big question is whether he will make a coalition with Chega after the election. He has said many times that he won't, but people (myself included) just don't believe him. This means people might vote for PS as a "useful vote" to stop Chega, which is how they got the 2022 absolute majority.

 

31 minutes ago, Komet said:

Any chance of some kind of a left coalition?

The best chance of it hapenning is if Pedro Nuno Santos becomes PS' leader. He helped make the deal that created the Geringonça (the 2015-19 arrangement), and is still pretty liked by the left-wing electorate and parties. If somebody more centrist becomes PS' leader, there's less of a chance, considering the 2019-2022 arrangement (no set deal, but left-wing would approve budget) ended in pretty sour terms.

[Last Boy on Earth]

On 11/7/2023 at 8:22 PM, tjspy said:

I'll keep voting on IL pretending it's the last good one with some good economic vision and leave the country. Chega being predicted to have a bigger market share than SIC or TVI have right now is also something! 

 

Anyway, I think mainly PSD will get a boost from this and that's about it. We aren't usually a very dramatic country voting so I don't think nothing too shocking will happen besides PSD taking the lead.

When you said you vote for IL it showed your complete ignorance and out of touch you are but then the rest of the post just proved it. Get a ******* grip!!

 

-

 

Glad I left the country 5 years ago, there's really nothing left there.

 

[tjspy]

1 hour ago, Last Boy on Earth said:

When you said you vote for IL it showed your complete ignorance and out of touch you are but then the rest of the post just proved it. Get a ******* grip!!

 

-

 

Glad I left the country 5 years ago, there's really nothing left there.

 

Why are you mad like whatever you think is some universal truth?? 

 

Anyway, all I was saying is that I find really scary Chega's results and that I expect PSD to go stronger, not that it's what I want. Besides, IL is a very valid voting choice as far as I'm concerned, even tho if not IL I usually go to the left due to social ideas that speak more to me. And you could just tell me whatever do you have against what I said instead of hyperventilating, why are people so extreme these days, god...

[Dear Reader]

 

its over for us girlies @Virgos Groove @Taylena

[Virgos Groove]

51 minutes ago, Dear Reader said:

 

its over for us girlies @Virgos Groove @Taylena

Well... at least BE and Livre rose... and PCP is still close to the 2022 numbers... that's something!

 

 

PS needs to hurry up and elect PNS now

[Virgos Groove]

 

So turns out the Public Ministry confused António Costa e Silva (economy minister) with António Costa (PM) in one of the wiretaps...

 

...

 

@Dear Reader @Taylena