Whether it’s completely accurate or not, prime minister António Costa is being called out for his lavish budget for official drivers.
Says Joana Amaral Dias – a rare combination of psychologist and purported politician – the PM’s office has 11 drivers, each earning over €2000 a month.
Granted the office has 62 members, but this is “incomprehensible in a progressive country, and unacceptable in a poor one”, says the left-winger.
Ms Dias is the self-proclaimed ‘public figure’ who revealed the contents of a damning audit on State bank CGD earlier this year (click here), and has exposed the extraordinary web of family connections within political circles (click here).
After leaving Bloco de Esquerda, she stood for the AGIR coalition in Lisbon, preceding her bid by posing naked for the front page of a magazine while heavily pregnant (click here).
Right now the constant media assertion that Ms Amaral is a politician is a bit outdated. She was an MP for three years, between 2002-2005, and since then she has not served in any public administrative capacity.
She is still a leading light at AGIR however and has a huge social media following (Over 93,000 on Facebook and 40,000 on Instagram).
Will AGIR be fielding candidates in the upcoming legislative elections? Well, that’s still being kept under wraps…
But the swiping at the PS, in this election year, is taking its toll.
Says Expresso today, despite all the ‘good news’ of reduced bus and train passes and a reducing deficit, the ruling party is ‘losing ground’.
Controversies, like the ‘happy families in government’ row (click here), are taking their toll in this crucial year in which the country will be voting in both European and national elections.
