Four government officials accused by the Left Bloc deny having links to real estate companies

Of the eight government officials that the Left Bloc (BE) indicated, this Tuesday night, as having links to the real estate sector, four have already come out publicly to deny these accusations, guaranteeing that they had divested themselves of all their holdings before taking office. This is the case of the Secretary of State for Housing Patrícia Gonçalves Costa, the Minister of Culture Dalila Rodrigues , the Secretary of State for Culture Alberto Santos and the Secretary of State for the Economy João Rui Ferreira.

All the departments have issued statements on the matter. Patrícia Gonçalves Costa says that "in politics, not everything goes and not everything can go". Her "management duties" at a real estate services company ended in August 2015 and her participation ceased in January 2019, "that is, more than five years ago".

The expression that "in politics, not everything goes" was also used by Dalila Rodrigues in a note issued by the Ministry of Culture and cited by Lusa regarding the accusation against the minister. The minister said that the accusation by the Left Bloc "is a lie" and that "at the time of taking office, she did not hold any shareholding in any commercial company". "Before taking office, I transferred the share, a fact that was duly registered in the commercial register", stressed Dalila Rodrigues.

The Secretary of State for Culture, Alberto Santos, also followed the same line of argument. Mariana Mortágua's statement "is not true". "Before taking office, which only happened less than two weeks ago (on 13 February), I sold the share I held in a commercial company, and I also immediately suspended my registration with the Portuguese Bar Association", he added.

As for the Secretary of State for the Economy João Rui Ferreira , and having been referred to as having links "to the real estate sector through a position as a substitute member of the CPCI – Portuguese Confederation of Construction and Real Estate", the note issued highlights that "it is important to clarify that this position in the aforementioned confederation resulted exclusively from his position in the executive board of APCOR (Portuguese Cork Association), functions that ceased before he took office as a member of the Government".

Speaking to journalists at the Assembly of the Republic at the end of the afternoon this Tuesday, BE coordinator Mariana Mortágua also indicated that there are 20 deputies with stakes in real estate companies (13 from the PSD, four from Chega and three from the PS).