The Assembly of the Republic accepted this Wednesday, 19 July, the request made by the Public Prosecutor's Office to lift the parliamentary immunity of the PSD deputy elected by Algarve Cristóvão Norte, to appoint him as a defendant in the inquiry into travel paid by Galp to politicians for see the Portugal-Hungary from Euro216.
According to the newspaper Expresso, which reported the news, the objective of the MP is for the Algarve deputy "to be heard and made a defendant" under an investigation into Portuguese politicians who went to France, with travel and tickets paid by the company Galp. Last week, this case, which is already known as the “Galpgate”, brought down three government secretaries of state.
The Public Ministry's request was addressed to the AR on Monday and, according to Jornal de Negócios, accepted today by the Parliament's Ethics Committee.
Contacted by Sul Informação on 10 July, the same day that the members of the Government involved made their seats available., Cristóvão Norte declined to make statements, referring to the explanations he gave about a year ago, when it was learned that he had been part of the delegation that went to Euro2016 with a trip paid for by the oil company.
At the time, Cristóvão Norte claimed that he had not been invited by Galp, but by "a longtime friend", and that he agreed to go "in a personal capacity and not as a deputy", considering that "there was no conflict of interest". taking into account that the office of deputy is not executive. At the time, the PSD deputy did not excuse the absence from the plenary session on the game day.
The Algarve parliamentarian also declined to make statements to the national newspaper, which today put forward the request for the lifting of his parliamentary immunity.
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