The mayor of Vila Real de Santo António, who also is the Algarve Social Democratic Pary leader, has come out in support of the Socialist Party former Prime Minister, José Sócrates, (pictured) in a remarkable departure from party protocol.
Luís Gomes said that he was talking "in a personal capacity" and that the PSD party, led by Pedro Passos Coelho, has always respected the freedom of citizens to say what they want, (however off message it might be.)
Gomes already has raised eyebrows by inviting Sócrates as a guest speaker this coming Saturday in a debate on the country’s justice system, a subject which Sócrates is well versed in having just spent 41 weeks in detention pending prosecution for tax evasion, money laundering and generally using his political position for personal gain.
The Vila Real de Santo António (VRSA) mayor says that it is unacceptable that Sócrates was held in Évora prison while Operation Marquês was carried out and that the part of the investigation concerning land registration and land use at Vale de Lobo, when Sócrates was Minister for the Environment, “makes no sense.”
Prosecutors suspect that Sócrates received kick-backs to the tune of €12 million related to the Vale do Lobo in a complex scheme involving out-of-character Caixa Geral de Depósitos funding of Vale de Lobo and other planned resorts, to businessmen Helder Bataglia (former director of ESCOM), to Joaquim Baroque of the Lena group and finally to Carlos Santos Silva into whose accounts the money finally arrived and then was dished out to the former PM to support his lavish lifestyle in Paris.
There so far has been silence from the PSD hierarchy about the VRSA debate or the outspoken comments of the mayor, but Gomes’ political career will have been damaged as a result of his stance and his by decision to arrange the weekend's debate, albeit in a ‘personal capacity.’
Luís Gomes said that José Sócrates "always treated VRSA very well," and that he had decided to speak out because, "as a citizen" he sees as urgent the need for a debate on the state of the country’s justice system and its relationship with politics.
“There has to be transparency in politics and there has to be transparency in court," said Gomes.
Retribution from the PSD Party headquarters in Lisbon holds no fear for the mayor who is convinced that if he sticks to the ‘personal capacity’ line, that he will escape censure.
The Standing Committee of the PSD met today but its members declined to comment, apart from one who said that in the case of an initiative in a personal capacity "a disciplinary process would not make sense," but many commentators believe this not to be true and Passos Coelho will react, and not in a nice way.
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Justice debate on Saturday 9th January
Auditorium Location:
Auditorium Glória Football Club
Rua Dom Pedro V, Number 47
8900 Vila Real de Santo António
GPS Coordinates: 37.193322, -7.416609
For more information contact:
Office of Social and Communication Protocol
Vila Real de Santo António council
www.cm-vrsa.pt
Mobile. 910890020
Tel. 281 510 008
Fax. 281 510 003
Comments
Will anyone there state the obvious ? That Portugal is not sufficiently 'developed' to be in the European Union. That the core of its problems are that it cannot control and regulate the activities of its elite. The laws, the regulations and the regulators are just not strong enough.
Prolific as the cases of corruption are in Portugal, like an iceberg, those known about are just the tip - and only brought to light because foreigners have kicked off. The vast mass of corrupt activity, not involving foreigners, is kept well hidden from prying eyes.
The claim against ex-PM Socrates and his championship of the Lena Construction Group, that became, with him as PM, the Portuguese Governments preferred supplier - mirrors the OLAF fraud claim against ex-PM Passos Coelho and Tecnoforma.
Both were monopolies. Backed, not by skills or resources but by corruption, they had no equivalent competition. So Tecnoforma gained almost all the contracts it bid for, making many millions - the few jobs going elsewhere as bones thrown to keep the competitors quiet.
Portugal actually has, like so much else, a mimicry of a Competition Authority. In these cases of distorted monopolistic competition involving important elite interests - where was this Competition Authority? And where will it ever be?