“We have said it before, Spinumviva will haunt the prime minister. It’s a curse that will pursue this Government and its credibility, and not responding or playing the victim will not change that,” criticized Mariana Mortágua during a campaign event for the upcoming municipal elections on Sunday in Oeiras, Lisbon district.
Joined by Livre spokespersons Rui Tavares and Isabel Mendes Lopes, Mariana Mortágua was questioned about the news reported by CNN Portugal on Tuesday, suggesting that prosecutors responsible for the preventive investigation into Spinumviva recommend opening a criminal inquiry into the prime minister, which will be decided by the Attorney General.
From the perspective of the Left Bloc leader, “it’s important for justice to do its job, but with deadlines, criteria, and that it applies equally to everyone, whether it’s the prime minister or anyone else.”
Mariana Mortágua described the Spinumviva case as “the elephant in the room of Portuguese governance” and emphasized that “there comes a time when there are accusations or there aren’t, and there must be a conclusion to any investigation.”
On Tuesday in Albufeira, the prime minister expressed being “stunned and outraged” by the reports regarding the Spinumviva case, denouncing it as “shameful,” and stated that he is awaiting the “analysis and judgment from the Public Prosecutor.”
“He is calm, he is outraged, he is stunned, because Luís Montenegro doesn’t choose a straight story and doesn’t tell us a full story from beginning to end. They always have to change because evidently, there’s always something not quite right,” criticized Rui Tavares.
At the end of September, the Attorney General stated that the Public Prosecutor requested more documentation from the prime minister to conclude the preventive investigation into the businesses of his family company Spinumviva, a case that led to the resignation of the first executive he led in March last year.
