New Secretary of State made direct adjustments with Montenegro. “Used the House and was offset”

Direct adjustments made with Montenegro society between 2015 and 2021 total more than 200 thousand euros. Appointment of Silvério Regalado was officially officialized, but “should have been avoided”?

The government proposed-and has seen-this Thursday to the President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa one, with the change of six secretaries of state, but one of the six new entries, which replaces Hernâni Dias, whose controversy with two real estate had been announced on January 28, is already in the mouths of the country by possible conflict of interest.

The new Secretary of State for Local Administration and Territory Planning, Silvério Regaladohe was president of the Vagos City Council when he entered into contracts with the Sousa Pinheiro & Montenegro law firm, of which Prime Minister Luís Montenegro was a partner until 2022.

These contracts, made between 2015 and 2021, total More than 200 thousand eurosaccording to the base portal analyzed by.

Silvério Regalado was mayor for 11 years, during which time the municipality has signed a total of five contracts with the Montenegro law firm. These contracts were celebrated by direct adjustment And they included legal advice and judicial sponsorship services, with values ​​ranging from 11,703 euros and 74,700 euros. The total accumulated of these five contracts reaches 209,409 euros.

Should not take office?

“The Prime Minister, with this appointment, shows well the clientel logic, of proximity in many of these personal and political relationships, and the way many of these careers are made,” says the vice president of the Civic Front, João Paulo Batalha, that explains that “this appointment must have been avoided.”

“Silvério Regalado used the House to hire services to Luís Montenegro’s office, at a time when Luís Montenegro was, say, in a kind of false in his political career. Then Luís Montenegro rewards the mayor, placing him first in the lists of deputies in 2024, when he was already in the last term, and now traffic him to the government, ”accuses the leader.

“There is, surely, here a relationship of good personal trust and political confidence, but there is also this logic of two political frames to help each other in their careers, feed on each other and this, in fact, shows the nature of A device of many of these careers, ”says João Paulo Batalha.

“It would be impossible for this not to know what makes it even more worrying is that they want the prime minister and the new secretary of state are perfectly quiet with a this kind of relationship, which is unfortunately common practice in politics and no problem seeing no problem none where this is known. ”

“It is a very problematic appointment because it absolutely transparent the logic of mutual aid, which exists in political parties,” he says.

“I think Luís Montenegro is unlikely to want to retreat from it, but I think the President of the Republic should ask for explanations. Which is natural that he is not comfortable with her, especially because she exposes a relationship that is not exactly healthy and, therefore, also undermines the capacity of the Secretary of State and his political authority to intervene in the position he will occupy ”,, It still says.

15 contracts, 679 thousand euros

But agreements with the Prime Minister’s lawyers are not the only ones to arise suspected conflicts of interest. Between 2014 and 2022, Sousa Pinheiro & Montenegro celebrated 15 contracts for direct adjustment with several municipalities governed by the PSDwhich, added, reach approximately 679 thousand euros.

Among the municipalities involved, in addition to vague, will be SpineLand of Luís Montenegro, who also maintained contracts with the same society. During this period, Luís Montenegro had 50% of the capital of the company, which he sold before assuming the presidency of the PSD.

At the time, I was ahead of the municipality of Espinho Joaquim Pinto Moreiraformer parliamentary vice-leader of social democrats and accused in Operation Vortex, an investigation that aimed at corruption and influence trafficking in several city councils, and by which Pinto Moreira, accused of two crimes of passive corruption, one of trafficking in Influence and another of violation of urban rules, PSD.

Montenegro was publicly defended, stating that the provision of legal services had no connection with the ongoing proceedings and that there was no conflict of interest.

The Parliamentary Committee of Ethics considered that there were no legal or ethical impediments in the contracts between the law firm and the municipalities.