European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Centre (in Portugal) Falls Apart…
Part 8
Not long after his appointment as Prime Minister, Luís
Montenegro became embroiled in a conflict-of-interest controversy
connected to a business consultancy company that he had founded in
2021.
In the last part we looked at the main centre-right party in Portugal, the PSD, and concluded with the events of March 2024 which saw its leader Luís Montenegro succeeding António Costa as Prime Minister of Portugal following a snap parliamentary election.
Although the PSD-led "Democratic Alliance" was the largest parliamentary bloc after the election, it failed to secure an overall majority and Montenegro ended up heading a centre-right minority government.
Not long after taking office, Montenegro became embroiled in a scandal of his own making which ultimately led to the premature termination of the minority government and another snap election. This scandal related to Montenegro's family connections with Spinumviva – a business consultancy that he had founded in 2021 – which gave rise to accusations of a conflict of interest.
At the time when Spinumviva was established, Montenegro was a lawyer and entrepreneur with a relatively minor political role in the PSD. When he became leader of the PSD in 2022, he transferred ownership of the company to his wife and sons.
But despite being a qualified lawyer, Montenegro seems to have overlooked the inconvenient fact that from a legal perspective the income from the consultancy was considered joint income for the married couple. Montenegro thus profited – albeit indirectly – from a family business that advised companies on the implementation of laws that he himself initiated as head of government.
One particularly explosive detail concerned Montenegro's links to the Solverde Group, a casino and hotel chain based in Espinho where he resides. It was revealed that Solverde was paying Spinumviva € 4,500 a month since July 2021 – a significant amount in Portugal where a monthly salary of around €3,000 is considered a very good income – in exchange for a set of “specialized compliance services and definition of procedures in the field of personal data protection”.
It also emerged that, before he became leader of the PSD, Montenegro acted as the legal representative of Solverde and he openly admitted to being a personal friend of the company's shareholders, the brothers Manuel and Rita Violas.
To cap it all, the concessions for the Espinho and Algarve casinos operated by Solverde were due to expire at the end of 2025. The decision on renewal would be taken by a government led by Montenegro, the very person who had acted as the company's legal representative during its previous negotiations with the state between 2018 and 2022.
Luís Montenegro (right) playing golf with Solverde Group
Chairman, Manuel Violas (left), in March 2025, two days after the
National Assembly debated a motion of censure directed at
Montenegro.
Montenegro continued to brazenly deny any conflict of interest but the Spinumviva controversy refused to go away and, in March 2025, he decided to call for a parliamentary vote of confidence.
Montenegro lost the vote of confidence and the collapse of his minority government triggered the third set of snap parliamentary elections in Portugal in as many years.
In March 2025, Montenegro lost a parliamentary vote of
confidence which triggered the third set of snap elections in
Portugal in as many years.
The Spinumviva affair did not appear to have any measurable impact on the electoral performance of the PSD in the May 2025 election. As a matter of fact, the "Democratic Alliance" managed to gain some additional seats – increasing from 80 to 91 – but it still fell well short of the 116 seats required for an overall majority. Montenegro was once again appointed as Prime Minister at the head of another centre-right minority government.
In the May 2025 elections Luís Montenegro’s centre-right
"Democratic Alliance" gained some additional seats
but fell well short of the 116 seats needed for an overall
majority.
Many commentators argued that the real "winner" of the May 2025 election was the right-wing populist party Chega which now became the second-largest party with 60 seats, overtaking the PS, which was relegated to third place with 58 seats.
Despite the rise of Chega, Montenegro was able to hold on to his position as Prime Minister. Whether or not he will manage to remain in office much longer before the ongoing fallout from the Spinumviva affair or some other scandal causes his current minority government to collapse is another question entirely.
With that we have more or less concluded our "deep dive" into the turbulent and crisis-ridden world of Portuguese party politics.
In the next part we will endeavour to explain why António Campinos needs to be able to count on the support of the Portuguese political establishment – both at national as well as at EU level – in order to secure his reappointment as President of the European Patent Office. █
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