The Minister of Infrastructure of Portugal, João Galamba, announced his resignation this Monday (13), after being declared by the Public Ministry (MP) as one of the suspects in the corruption case that led to the resignation of the head of government, António Costa, last week.
“I submitted this resignation after deep personal and family reflection, and because I consider, as a father and husband, that this decision is the only one possible to guarantee the tranquility and discretion to which my family is unequivocally entitled,” Galamba said in a statement.
Galamba is one of nine defendants (formal suspects, step prior to indictment) in the case of corruption, influence peddling and malfeasance in projects related to lithium, hydrogen and a data center, a case that affected Costa.
In his statement, Galamba, Minister of Infrastructure since January, explained that he is leaving his position, despite “understanding that the political conditions have not been exhausted” for the exercise of his functions.
Before heading the department, Galamba had been Secretary of Energy in Costa’s first government (2015-2019), Deputy Secretary of State and Energy (2019-2022) and Secretary of the Environment until January 2023.
Galamba explained in the note that, when he was Secretary of State for Energy, he worked in “total consonance” with the priorities of the European Union and the government in the energy transition, which he always considered as a challenge to the country for “technological, industrial development and greater energy independence”.
The minister highlighted that it was in this context that he committed to “guaranteeing conditions for critical raw materials, such as lithium, and the establishment in the country of the entire battery value chain, including a lithium refinery, to bring in new investments, technology and highly qualified jobs.”
He emphasized that, as Infrastructure Minister, he focused on developing Portugal’s “competitive advantages” in the digitalization, decarbonization and industrialization of its commercial ports to become a competitive hub “for connectivity, data storage and processing”.
The MP’s investigation focuses on lithium mining concessions in the Romano and Barroso mines, a project for the construction of a data center, developed by the company Start Campus, and another for a hydrogen energy production plant, both in Sines.
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