Portuguese Police Arrest Five in Raid on Socialist Party's Local Government "Network"

Portugal's judicial police have arrested five people and named 37 suspects as part of an investigation into an alleged corruption "network" operating within the Socialist Party's local government power base. The operation, confirmed to Euronews by a PJ source, involved raids on multiple locations across Lisbon, Mafra, Oeiras, and Coimbra.

"The Judicial Police, through the National Anti-Corruption Unit, is conducting a police operation to execute 60 search warrants for residences and 32 search warrants for non-residential premises," the PJ said in a press release. Investigators are looking into potential crimes of "malfeasance and economic participation in business, involving the awarding of various contracts by municipal councils and parish councils."

The statement added that the contracts at issue were awarded through direct award procedures or prior consultation processes, "in clear violation of applicable legal norms and with evident harm to the public treasury." Those taken into custody are due to appear before the Central Criminal Investigation Court in Lisbon for initial questioning.

The news was first reported by CNN Portugal, which noted that searches would extend to the Socialist Party headquarters in Lisbon. According to the report, the investigation is examining "an alleged network built around the PS's local government power" involving the hiring of party members and the awarding of contracts to companies owned by Socialists through direct negotiations. Between 2016 and 2022 alone, these contracts allegedly totaled more than €800,000.

At the center of the investigation is the Santa Maria Maior parish council, which was led by Miguel Coelho, identified as one of the main targets of the operation. According to CNN Portugal, the former mayor allegedly recruited a network of nine former PS candidates for the municipality of Mafra, led by Sérgio Santos. The network reportedly contracted 19 companies linked to socialist activists.

The wife of Duarte Moral, a former advisor to ex-Prime Minister António Costa, is one of the beneficiaries of these direct contracts, the report said. Duarte Moral himself was among those arrested.

For now, five people are in custody, dozens of homes and offices have been searched, and Portugal's Socialist Party is once again facing uncomfortable questions about how its local power networks actually operated. The PJ says the contracts were awarded in "clear violation" of the law. The suspects will have their say in court. And the public, once again, is left wondering how many more networks are still undiscovered.