Luís Montenegro, in the shadow the business scandal

The acting prime minister of Portugal, the suit has been rewarded and asks to let him work, as the lyrics of his campaign hymn say, winning the elections of this Sunday, after his family for which there is an investigation in progress against him.

Although it is not known if a case is going to prosper against him, Montenegro has left the dark circles and their faces of circumstances behind during the debate of the vote of confidence in the Parliament last March, that his executive lost, to give way to the affable politician, in soft and half smile ways.

It helps him that the surveys give him an advantage against the socialist Pedro Nuno Santos and that the criticisms against him focus more on the management of his government on issues such as public health, economy or the fight against corruption in general than in the scandal that has made him fall, that of the company he founded in 2021 when he was out of active politics ,.

The existence of this company, which currently controls their children, came to light in the press in February and soon what began as a controversy evolved to a political crisis, after it was published that Solverde, a group of casinos and hotels for which Montenegro worked in the past, was paying Spinumviva monthly for its services.

There is an ongoing investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office of Portugal against Prime Minister after an anonymous complaint, but until now they have barely transcended more details.

Despite all this, the polls are favorable to Montenegro, president of the conservative Social Democratic Party (PSD). The deputy of this Formation Dulcinea Catarina Moura, head of the list by the Guardian district, puts voice to what some of Montenegro’s voters think and for what they excuse him: “Creating a company when it is out of active politics is the most commendable attitude of those who want to live and sustain their family with their work and dedication,” he told Efe.

“Creating a company when you are out of active politics is the most commendable attitude of those who want to live and sustain your family with your work and dedication”

Moura believes that the Portuguese want financial, economic and political stability, and that they will vote on May 18 for a project that guarantees “continuity in governance.”

Whatever the meaning of the vote, the truth is that Montenegro has revealed itself as a strategist who knows how to maneuver in adverse conditions, something that has demonstrated throughout his career.

His philosophy

In some interview in the past, he confessed that he considers himself a reflexive person who likes to ponder well and never rush, what has been his philosophy throughout his career of more than 25 years in the PSD, one of the forces that make up the democratic alliance coalition (AD), together with the democratian CDS-PP.

Faced with the extreme right, Montenegro offers the friendly side of conservatism and leaves others in AD to adopt a tougher line, and has already warned that it has no intention of agreeing with the Chega extremist party, as did after the elections of March 2024.

Luís Filipe Montenegro Cardoso de Morais Esteves was born in 1973 in Porto and was forged in local politics in the town where he grew up, Espinho, a town of 10,000 inhabitants to the south of the second city of the country.

Stupidas they call him at home, or the pea (Guisante) As his friends nicknamed, he was leader of Espinho’s democratic youth and held positions such as the president of the Municipal Assembly and Councilor. He was defeated twice when he ran for the mayor’s office.

He knows about what it is to lose and get up, because he was also defeated as an aspiring party to lead the Aveiro district and years later he was defeated twice by Rui Rio in the contest to preside over the PSD, until in May 2022 he won the primaries.

His strong, according to Moura, “his sympathy, kindness and sense of humor”, while the key to his success considers that it is his “capacity.”