Deputy Filipe Melo in court for not paying debt of 7000 euros to Chega colleague

The complaint was filed by Joaquim Pinto Vale, leader of the Barcelos municipality, who claims that Filipe Melo promised him to pay off the debt last Christmas, but that he never made the payment.

Chega deputy Filipe Melo is being subject of a criminal complaint presented at the Judicial Court of the District of Braga by Joaquim Pinto do Vale, leader of the Barcelos municipality of the same party. The case involves alleged personal loans worth a total of 9000 euros that the deputy never repaid.

According to , Filipe Melo asked Joaquim Pinto do Vale for 7 thousand euros at three different moments: 2000 euros on April 11, 2023, 2500 euros on August 25, 2023 and another 2500 euros in October 2024. Furthermore, the deputy requested another 2000 euros from a domestic worker who works at the house in Pinto do Vale, on June 28, 2024. None of the amounts were refunded.

The complainant states that the requests were justified by Melo with “economic difficulties”, claiming the need for liquidity to fulfill personal commitments. Pinto do Vale adds that the deputy always promised to settle debts by December 2024when he received his Christmas allowance, but that never happened. Since January, Chega’s local leader claims to have tried several times to obtain payment, via telephone and in person, without success. In May, he sent a registered letter formally demanding the money back.

Filipe Melo, 44 ​​years old, is deputy secretary of the Board of the Assembly of the Republic and president of the district of Braga do Chega. The deputy had already publicly admitted, in an interview with the Observador, that he had debts exceeding 120 thousand euros before his election in 2022, guaranteeing at the time that the financial problems were “overcome”. In the past, he was ordered to pay 80 thousand euros in execution proceedings and had part of his salary garnished for a debt of 15 thousand euros to Colégio João Paulo II, in Braga.

Grandnephew of Cónego Melo, a notable figure on the Catholic right in the post-25th of April era, Filipe Melo worked for the PSD and CDS before joining André Ventura’s project. In addition to his position as deputy, he also serves as councilor in the Vila Verde Chamber, elected in the last municipal councils.