President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke to journalists at the City of Football in Lisbon, after being questioned about the latest news regarding the Spinumviva case, which involves the Prime Minister. He refused to comment, citing, “an investigation that is still under judicial review, although preliminary”.
Regarding this case, the Head of State commented on the timing of controversial issues: “In the final stages of an electoral period, I say this from experience, I have often been called to intervene in many controversial issues precisely during that period. Why is it during that period? Because it’s a crucial period in electoral terms”.
When asked if he believes the spheres of justice and politics are merging, the President of the Republic did not answer directly and continued: “I think the following: there’s an idea, which I believe is wrong, that the last days of the electoral campaign are very important because they will change or define the electorate in the final stretch.”
Without criticizing or blaming anyone and noting that he was not “commenting on specific cases,” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stated he disagrees with the notion that the campaign’s final stretch is decisive: “My experience is very different from that. The electorate remains fixed, for the most part, long before that point.”
“But there’s this notion, which I think is wrong, especially when polls show a very close race between candidates or political formations, the idea that what happens in the final moments can have a decisive effect,” he reinforced.
The preventive investigation opened by the Prosecutor General’s Office into Luís Montenegro’s family business, Spinumviva, entered the debate of the campaign for municipal elections, as had happened before in the May legislative elections.
Lusa | 18:13 – 08/10/2025
For the Head of State, “those who have been candidates know it is part of the campaign inevitability, as it is seen, to expect the most difficult, complicated, sometimes seemingly more exciting moments, at the campaign’s end”.
“That doesn’t mean they will then impact the results,” he added.
When asked by the media if he had anything to say about new elements that emerged concerning the Prime Minister’s family business, Luís Montenegro, now passed on to his children, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa responded: “No, not on the substance.”
“As it is a specific case, a process that is still under judicial investigation, albeit preliminary, the President of the Republic will not comment on it, ever,” he justified.
Following the reports from TVI/CNN Portugal and Sábado that prosecutors favor opening an inquiry into Spinumviva, on Tuesday, five days before the municipal elections, the Prosecutor General’s Office issued a statement clarifying that the preventive investigation related to this company is still “ongoing.”
According to the same statement, “the Public Prosecutor’s Office is still awaiting documentation that will require analysis,” and so far, there is “no formed conviction that allows for closing the referred preventive investigation, nor has anything been proposed to the Prosecutor General in this regard.”
[News updated at 19:27]
