CDS-PP leader Diogo Moura says he is the target of an “unfounded personal attack” – Politics

CDS-PP leader Diogo Moura defended this Sunday that “the nature of the process” in which he is accused of fraud in that party’s internal elections “is that of an unfounded personal attack”.

In a written note sent to Lusa, Diogo Moura also states that the president of the Lisbon City Council (CML), Carlos Moedas, asked him to suspend his mandate as councilor for Culture “to avoid the attacks that the opposition is directing at the executive” of the capital’s municipality.

The president of the CML, Carlos Moedas (PSD), revealed this Sunday, in a written statement sent to Lusa, that he asked Diogo Moura “to suspend his mandate, a request that he immediately agreed to”.

The Public Ministry accused Diogo Moura, who is also vice-president of the CDS-PP, of “two crimes of fraud in elections, aggravated”, for having allegedly sought to manipulate the votes of activists in two electoral acts (2019 and 2021), according to CNN Portugal reported on Thursday.

According to that television channel, Diogo Moura “knew that a secretary from the Lisbon district was at the polling station and sent several messages to her asking her to introduce votes from activists who did not present themselves at the polling station into the ballot box.” .

However, according to CNN Portugal, “the district secretary never acceded to the requests” and the case ended up being reported and investigated by the PSP, with the centrist mayor now being formally accused by the 4th section of DIAP (Investigation Department and Criminal Action) of Lisbon.

In the note sent this Sunday to Lusa, Diogo Moura states that this process “has nothing to do” with his duties as councilor, “nor with council decisions”.

“The aforementioned process is not only external to the CML – these are partisan acts – but it goes back to a time well before the current municipal mandate. I was not pronounced, judged or condemned. The nature of the process is that of a personal attack without foundation”, he argues.

Diogo Moura claims to be “absolutely innocent” and guarantees that he will prove it.

In the note sent to Lusa today, Carlos Moedas explains that, “despite the allegations made against him [a Diogo Moura] do not report to the person in charge as a councilor”, he considers “there are no conditions for the councilor to continue developing his work in favor of the people of Lisbon”.

On Friday, the PS and the Bloco de Esquerda had defended the dismissal of Diogo Moura.

The Lisbon council of the PS recalled, in a statement sent to Lusa, that, “on April 24, 2021, in an interview with Público, Carlos Moedas guaranteed that as mayor he would never work directly with him a councilor who is under suspicion of any type of case”.

“None of this happens now, with a formal judicial accusation, in what is the cotton test of Carlos Moedas’ word”, read the socialists’ note.

The PS, which has three elected representatives in the Lisbon Chamber, demanded that Diogo Moura be immediately removed “from coordinating electoral acts in the municipality”.

The Bloco de Esquerda, also in a note sent to Lusa, also considered that Diogo Moura “does not have the conditions to maintain political functions in the municipality of Lisbon”, urging Carlos Moedas to replace the mayor in the position.