A piece of news released on Wednesday, October 7th, revived the Spinumviva theme and transformed Luís Montenegro’s family business into the hot topic of the electoral campaign this Wednesday, 8th. According to CNN Portugal, the prosecutors responsible for the preventive investigation into the activity of the Spinumviva company, the construction of Luís Montenegro’s Espinho house and the origin of the funds for the acquisition of two apartments in Lisbon, all within the sphere property of the Prime Minister, they want an inquiry to be opened into the Government leader. Information that led the Attorney General’s Office to clarify that “the preventive investigation related to the company Spinumviva is ongoing” and that “there is, at this moment, no conviction formed that would allow the aforementioned preventive investigation to be closed nor has anything been proposed to the Attorney General of the Republic in this area”.
Luís Montengro said he was “stunned”, spoke of “little shame” and “disloyalty” and asked the Portuguese not to “let themselves be carried away by these three-way maneuvers”. or four days after the end of an electoral campaign”.
However, this Wednesday, Spinumviva continues to be on the lips of opposition party leaders.
The leader of Chega considered that the prime minister is “dragging the situation”o not providing all the clarifications and considered that Luís Montenegro could not have privileged treatment.
“What I think is relevant here is, we continue to have a prime minister in the country who is under suspicion of serious crimes. These are serious crimes, crimes of suitability in relation to the exercise of public office, but as far as we know, at least considering what was known, a lot ofthis situation has been dragged by the Prime Minister himself”, accused André Ventura, adding that the prime minister “either has not sent the information requested of them in time, or often makes a point of not sending the information, either to the Judiciary Police or to the Public Ministry”.
The president of Chega also considered that “the authorities must guarantee that the treatment being given to Luís Montenegro is not unequal, nor is it any privilege compared to all others.”
Paulo Raimundo, in turn, said he did not want to “feed the narrative” that the news about the Sinumviva case is made “on purpose and tailored”, during the election campaign, but left a challenge to the prime minister: “If the Prime Minister is wanting to raise suspicions about the times of Justice, he has to accept this responsibility.”
Considering that the country should have been spared this “soap opera”, the secretary general of the PCP argued that When the first news about the case of the family company in Montenegro appeared, he himself should have “taken the step of resigning”.
Paulo Raimundo recalled that Montenegro chose to “force elections” and noted that the problem “is there again”.
“Spinumviva will persecute the Prime Minister, it is a curse that will persecute this Government and its credibility, and it is not by not responding or by acting offended that this will change”stated, in turn, Mariana Mortágua. The coordinator of the Left Bloc considered that the Spinumviva case “is the elephant in the room of Portuguese governance” and argued that “it is important that Justice does its work, but that it has deadlines, criteria and that this is a benefit applied to all people, prime minister or anyone else”.
“Luís Montenegro and his poorly told stories”, commented Rui Tavares, leader of Livre, considering that Montenegro “does not tell a straight story, from beginning to end”.
Mariana Leitão, leader of the Liberal Initiative, considered that “the important thing is that the Public Ministry can carry out its investigations without any type of interference and reach its conclusions.
On Tuesday, the leader of the PS, José Luís Carneiro, had already said that “in due time, the prime minister will give the explanations he understands to the authorities”, expressing confidence in Justice