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After Portugal’s Prime Minister António Costa announced earlier this week that he was resigning after his name appeared in a suspected corruption scandal, the country’s president dissolved parliament on Thursday.
– I have chosen to dissolve the Parliament of the Republic and announce that elections will be held on March 10, Portugal’s conservative President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said in a televised speech on Thursday evening.
The 62-year-old left-wing politician António Costa became Portugal’s leader in 2015. He was teary-eyed when he and his family announced his resignation on Tuesday.
Costa’s surprise announcement came just hours after the country’s police arrested his chief of staff in a raid on several government buildings and other properties as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe.
In short, it concerns corruption suspicions linked to contracts for green hydrogen and lithium extraction – which have tarnished several high-ranking government officials.
By holding the election only in March next year, the Portuguese Social Democrats are considered to have a chance to find a successor to Costa.