This Monday, António Costa will deliver his ninth and final Christmas message as Prime Minister, a month and a half after his resignation on November 7th.
A year ago, leading a government with an absolute majority following legislative elections, António Costa said the Portuguese had reason to be confident, despite a scenario of international uncertainty, regarding the war in Ukraine.
And he stressed that the path to reducing deficits and debt had provided Portugal with “refuge from the shocks of the past”, drawing criticism from opposition parties for self-aggrandizement at a time of high inflation.
António Costa’s Christmas message will be broadcast on television at 21:00.
On November 7, for the first time in the history of Portuguese democracy, searches were carried out at the official residence of the Prime Minister – in the workroom of his then chief of staff, Victor Escaria – as part of a judicial investigation into the creation of the center. data for Sines and lithium and hydrogen businesses.
A few hours later, the last paragraph of the statement from the Attorney General’s Office announced that the Prime Minister had become the subject of a Supreme Court investigation based on that investigation. Shortly after this, António Costa resigned, the President of the Republic agreed, and two days later Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa called early elections for March 10.