Miguel Macedo, the former Minister of Internal Affairs who resigned as a matter of principle over the Golden Visa affair saying he had nothing to do with any wrongdoing, is now a formal suspect in the case and has been questioned for six hours by detectives from the Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action.
Faced with damning phone tap evidence, the former minister formally was made a suspect in Operation Labyrinth, the inquiry into the whole Golden Visa corruption scandal that saw 11 high profile arrests in November last year.
Macedo assumed no blame or personal responsibility for any activities under investigation in the Golden Visa probe but said that the "authority of his position had been diminished" and his resignation was offered so as "not to undermine the government." This was accepted by the prime minister.
Macedo resigned just days after the scandal broke last November and many praised his selflessness and sense of responsibility - the taped evidence now may tell another tale as early reports suggest that he is deelpy involved in pulling favours for commercial partners and influencing government colleagues, including Paulo Nuncio at Finanças, to go easy on a large VAT bill.
It will be extremely embarassing for the prime minister with a general election in just over three weeks time if Macedo indeed was involved in the corruption and influence peddling that has tainted this ill-fated scheme to issue Shengen-wide visas to rich non-EU residents buying property in Portugal.
The first step for the authorities was have Macedo’s parliamentary immunity removed which the Parliamentary Committee for Ethics, Citizenship and Communication duly arranged so that Macedo could be charged if sufficient evidence was amassed.
Charges in Operation Labyrinth span the full length of those possible including active and passive corruption, improper receipt of benefit, prevarication, embezzlement, abuse of power and influence peddling.
Last year's November arrests included top names such as the Director of the Institute of Registration and Notaries António Figueiredo, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice Maria Antonia Anes, the Director of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) Jarmela Palos, Xiadong Zhu a Chinese citizen, and Jaime Gomes from JMF Projects among others.
Miguel Macedo’s ‘holier than thou’ ruse may well have backfired as resigning his ministerial position made it easier to remove his immunity.
In fact in a game of bluff the former minister asked for his parliamentary immunity to be removed so he could ‘help the police with their inquiries,’ a ploy that has backfired with dramatic result.
Passos Coelho and his coalition partners can not fail but to be damaged by yet another minister in trouble so close to the general election.
Macedo's career in brief:
Miguel Bento Martins da Costa Macedo e Silva, or simply 'Miguel Macedo' was the leader of JSD, the youth wing of PSD. His first experience in the government was in the first cabinet of Aníbal Cavaco Silva as Junior Secretary of State of Minister Couto dos Santos between 1990 and 1991.
Afterwards he became active in local politics and was elected city councilor of Braga, from 1993 to 1997.
In 2002, he returned to national politics with the PSD as State Secretary of Justice under Minister Celeste Cardona and Minister José Pedro Aguiar-Branco.
He was the Deputy of Braga from 1987 to 2002, and again from 2005 onwards.
When Pedro Passos Coelho was elected president of PSD, Miguel Macedo was elected leader of Parliament. His negative vote for the approval of the Programa de Estabilidade e Crescimento [Stability and Growth Programme] (PEC) of the current president at that time, José Sócrates, meant the fall of his government and the call for early elections.
On 16 November 2014, he announced his resignation following a series of corruption allegations and investigations into some of his business and ministerial partners.
