The Minister of Environment and Climate Action Duarte Cordeiro will be heard in Parliament this Wednesday as part of the assessment of the proposal for the state budget for 2024 (OE2024), a day after the resignation of the Prime Minister.
A hearing in the Budget and Finance Committee is scheduled for 15:30 as part of a specific assessment of the proposed law No. 109/XV/2.ª, which approves OE2024.
The Ministry of Environment and Climate Action was one of the places raided on Tuesday over suspected corruption and malfeasance in the lithium and hydrogen business.
Under the direction of the Directorate General of Investigation and Prosecution (DCIAP), 17 house searches were carried out, five searches were carried out at a lawyer’s office and home and 20 searches of a non-domestic nature, namely premises used by the head of the Prime Minister’s Office. ; in the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change; in the Ministry of Infrastructure and the State Secretariat for Energy and Climate; in the Sines City Council and in the headquarters of other public institutions and companies.
The chief of staff of the Prime Minister, Vitor Escaria, the mayor of Sines, Nuno Mascarenhas, two administrators of the Start Campus society and a consultant were detained.
Prime Minister Antonio Costa on Tuesday asked the President of the Republic to resign, which he accepted after the State Ministry said he was the subject of an independent Supreme Court investigation into the lithium and hydrogen projects.
The President has convened the parties for a round of hearings at the Belem Palace in Lisbon this Wednesday and will meet with the Council of State on Thursday.
In a statement at the Palácio de São Bento, António Costa refused to commit “any illegal or objectionable act” and expressed his full readiness to cooperate with justice “in whatever he deems necessary.”