António Costa stated today that a prime minister has no friends and stressed that lawyer Lacerda Machado never acted within his mandate on the project for the construction of the Sines Data Center.
This position was taken by António Costa after having made a statement to the country, at a press conference, when he was questioned about the fact that Digo Lacerda Machado, who is often classified as the Prime Minister's "best friend", had invoked the your name on the Data Center project.
«Dr Diogo Lacerda Machado has not collaborated in this office for many years and had no mandate from me to do anything in this case that I have seen mentioned in the newspaper. He never spoke to me about this subject under any circumstances", he began by responding.
He then referred to his personal relationships with former Secretary of State Diogo Lacerda Machado.
«Although, in a moment of unhappiness, I said that he was my best friend, the reality is that a prime minister has no friends. And the longer he works, I must say, in fact, the fewer friends he has,” he countered.
In this context, the executive leader added that Lacerda Machado «whether he did it or not in this process», he never did it with his authorization, with his knowledge, with his interference.
«And he never spoke to me about this subject», he reinforced.
Tuesday's operation by the Public Ministry was based on at least 42 searches and led to the detention of five people for questioning, including Diogo Lacerda Machado, as well as the Prime Minister's chief of staff, Vítor Escária, the president of the Chamber of Sines Nuno Mascarenhas and two administrators from the Start Campus company, Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves.
In total, there are nine defendants in the case, including the Minister of Infrastructure João Galamba, the president of the Portuguese Environment Agency Nuno Lacasta, the lawyer and former PS spokesperson João Tiago Silveira and the company Start Campus.
In the investigation into the lithium, green hydrogen and Sines data center business, according to the Public Ministry (MP), crimes of malfeasance, active and passive corruption of political office holders and influence peddling may be at stake.
The process targets the Montalegre and Boticas lithium exploration concessions, both in Vila Real; an energy production project from hydrogen in Sines, Setúbal, and the construction project of a data center in the Industrial and Logistics Zone of Sines by the company Start Campus.
António Costa is the target of an investigation by the Public Ministry (MP) at the Supreme Court of Justice, after suspects invoked his name as having intervened to unblock procedures in the businesses being investigated.
According to the indictment, the MP considers that the prime minister intervened in the approval of a diploma favorable to the interests of the company Start Campus.
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