Infrastructure Minister João Galamba on Monday denied “stealing power from the Minister of Economy” by amending a regulation, as reported by Correio da Manhã, stating that this was “a legal impossibility”.
Correio da Manhã (CM) reports on Monday that João Galamba, as Secretary of State for Energy, “has revoked the decision-making powers of the Minister of Economy, António Costa e Silva, to benefit, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the company Start Campus in the data center in Sines”.
The newspaper writes that João Galamba “stole” the decision-making power from the Minister of Economy, António Costa e Silva, through Regulation No. 248/2022 of September 29, which gave the Secretary of State for Energy the power to regulate the use of the land and the infrastructure of REN for other purposes to the detriment of the Minister of Economic Affairs, as established by Regulation No. 96/2004 of January 23, and also expanded the scope of these purposes.
João Galamba tells CMTV on Monday that it is news “It is false, a lie and a legal impossibility”.
“Every lawyer knows that this is an impossibility, because it is not possible for a foreign minister to take away power on the orders of anyone. (…) I already have that power, I don’t steal anything from anyone. This change is limited to the following: where it used to be Minister of Economic Affairs, it is now read as the person responsible for the Energy Portfolio, who, according to the provisions of the Decree-Law, is the Minister who, in the concrete structure of a Government, has the Energy Portfolio, this could be the Minister of Economic Affairs or someone else. Coincidentally, he was Minister of Environment in that government and I had responsibilities associated with being Minister of Foreign Affairs.”explains.
“Anyone who understands the law and can read regulations and knows an organic government law understands this”he emphasizes.
According to the newspaper, the change to the regulation had one purpose according to the Public Prosecution Service: “which would also allow REN’s gas transit infrastructure to be used to transmit fiber optic cables, which would facilitate data connections to the ‘data center’, especially those originating from submarine cables”.
The newspaper also says that the Phone taps show that the change in the regulation was ‘drafted by people who work for Start Campus in its interest’ and was approved by the then Secretary of State João Galamba at the request of Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves, directors of Start Campus and suspects in the proceedings “.
Tuesday’s operation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office was based on at least 42 searches and led to the arrest of five people for questioning: the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, Vítor Escária, the President of the Chamber of Sines, Nuno Mascarenhas, two administrators of the Start Campus Society, Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves, and lawyer Diogo Lacerda Machado, a friend of António Costa.
In total, there are nine suspects 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.
According to the Public Prosecution Service (MP), crimes, active and passive corruption of political office holders and the exercise of influence may be at stake in the investigation into the lithium, green hydrogen and Sines data center activities.
António Costa is the target of an investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) at the Supreme Court, after suspects put forward his name for intervening to unblock procedures in the companies under investigation.
After this operation, the Prime Minister resigned and the President of the Republic decided to call early parliamentary elections on March 10, 2024.
Source: DN
