The Babel process has marred the city council, the municipal project, the president, the councilors, and above all, the justice system,” stated Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues after the extraordinary municipal executive meeting that approved the 2024 management report and consolidated financial statements, despite two dissenting votes from the PSD.
Operation Babel, which involves alleged tampering and violation of regulations in urban licensing processes in Gaia, has 16 defendants, including Patrocínio Azevedo, who, at the time of the process, was the vice-president of the Vila Nova de Gaia City Council and subsequently resigned from his position.
Patrocínio Azevedo, who spent approximately 23 months in preventive detention, was released in April and is now required to report to the authorities three times a week and is prohibited from contacting the other defendants.
Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues noted that this process tarnished the justice system because the former deputy mayor was imprisoned for 23 months for allegedly receiving a backpack with 100,000 euros, which halfway through the trial was proven not to have happened.
“Then he’s sent home and nothing happens, so it’s a blemish on this process’s trajectory, and I think we all should feel a small blemish on our institutional structure and power system,” he remarked.
Regarding justice, Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, who was sentenced to removal from office for misuse, commented that the country currently treats those who steal 10 or 20 million euros the same as someone who uses a council car to go to the bakery.
“It seems to me that my departure serves, first and foremost, to tell the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities and the Government that it’s important to legislate because in a country where justice is manipulated by anonymous complaints and backstage maneuvers, it’s not just a mayor at stake, it’s the entire democracy,” he emphasized.
In his opinion, it is necessary to reflect on this because one day, those who lead these institutions may not mind being called a thief because they might be one, and thus, they have no shame.
“I am ashamed to participate in a process where the degradation of institutions is evident,” he stressed.
