Portuguese Interior Minister Eduardo Cabrita resigned Friday due to a scandal related to the management of a case involving his driver in a road accident that killed one last June.
"
I cannot allow this case to be used politically to penalize the action of the government (...) so that I asked to be relieved of my functions
", explained Eduardo Cabrita during a press conference .
"
I accepted this resignation request
Prime Minister Antonio Costa immediately reacted to another press conference.
This resignation comes less than two months before the next early legislative elections, called after the rejection of the 2022 draft budget of the minority socialist government of Antonio Costa.
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Last June, the ministerial car in which Eduardo Cabrita was, traveling "
at about 163 km / hour
" according to local media, fatally struck a motorway patroller in the region of Evora (south). On Friday, the minister's driver was accused by the Portuguese public prosecutor's office of negligence. Since this accident, the management of this file has been strongly criticized. The minister was notably accused of shirking his responsibilities and of insensitivity to the victim's family. "
It is an infamous episode, where the most absolute human insensitivity and the most shameless political disempowerment of a minister of the Republic intersect
," said Joao Miguel Tavares, commentator for the daily Publico.
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The day after the accident, the Interior Ministry justified itself by explaining that there was no signage on the highway to alert drivers of the cleaning work.
But a few days later, the Brisa dealer had contradicted this version claiming that the "
signage of maintenance work
" was well respected.
Eduardo Cabrita took office in 2017, just after the fierce fires that hit Portugal that year, killing more than 100 people.
Before being appointed to the Interior, he served as Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister from 2015 to 2017.