Controversy continues to dog former PSD minister Miguel Relvas. After endless political scandals that have seen the former right-hand of PSD leader Pedro Passos Coelho described in Wikipedia as a “symbol of incompetence”, he has now been publicly disgraced by the administrative tribunal of justice in Lisbon.
The court has annulled Relvas’ university degree – the highly-prized badge of excellence that sees almost everyone who considers they are someone in this country referred to as Dr.
Foreigners often marvel at how many ‘doctors’ Portugal has, but from today onwards, Miguel Relvas is not one of them.
The Tribunal Administrativo de Círculo de Lisboa has considered his degree in Political Science and International Relations from Universidade Lusófona “invalid” because “existing irregularities in the case were so grave”.
Portugal’s public ministry lodged its case after the country’s education authority discovered that Relvas passed one of his exams without even writing a word.
“Relvas was subsequently approved for the Chair of Introduction to Contemporary Thinking by the rector of the university at the time”, writes Público, “without having attended even one of the respective lectures”.
By the time the case was lodged in the administrative court (three years ago), investigators had come to the conclusion that Relvas had only completed four of the necessary 36 disciplines required for his degree, adds Observador.
So far there has been no statement made by the former politician and businessman whose name is now so synonymous with scandal that Radio Renascença calls him the “un-loved”.
To date, however, not one of those scandals has seen the “un-loved” charged with anything.
