The prime minister's dismissal will be formalized in December, but OE2024 will be approved before.
The President of the Republic announced, this Thursday, the dissolution of Parliament, after meeting with the Council of State, at the Palace of Belém. At stake is the political crisis scenario that the country has entered due to the investigation into the projects of lithium and green hydrogen and which led on Tuesday to the resignation of the Chief Executive, after the Public Ministry revealed that he is the target of an independent investigation by the Supreme Court of Justice .
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that António Costa will remain in the Government until the next elections, scheduled for March 10, 2024. The
Prime Minister's dismissal will be formalized in December and the State Budget (OE) for 2024 will be approved beforehand.
The head of state left a word of thanks to António Costa for his eight years of governance and for all the political and social challenges he had to face during that journey.
"For the first time in a democracy, a prime minister found out that he was going to be the subject of the Supreme Court's autonomous process", he began by saying.
"I hope that time, more quickly than slowly, will allow us to clarify what happened, respecting the presumption of innocence, safeguarding the good name, affirming justice and strengthening the democratic rule of law", he declared.
Marcelo explained that he tried to shorten the decision-making process as much as possible, not neglecting the conditions that existed, such as the time needed to replace the leader of the Socialist Party.
"Giving the word back to the people, without dramatization. I tried to shorten as much as possible the time taken for the decision and the dissolution of Parliament and the calling of elections (...) Now it's a matter of looking ahead, studying the pace, choosing the representatives of the people. ", he reiterated. The President of the Republic reinforced the need for a Government with a notion of "future, pluralism and democracy" and said he trusted the Portuguese with the next choice.