Pro-Putin ‘favoritism’ in Setúbal continues to fan flames of controversy

The scandal of a municipality openly funding a pro-Putin organisation – to the extent that it put its president in charge of receiving Ukrainian refugees – is showing no signs of abating today. The municipality’s PS party has announced that it will be proposing a motion of censure tomorrow, and demanding the creation of a special commission to monitor the actions of the council in accommodating refugees; PSD voices have demanded a full inquiry and television commentator Luís Marques Mendes has suggested the government has used its ‘absolute majority’ to stymy democracy in refusing other parties’ calls for all those concerned to be questioned in parliament. This week may well see further ructions as Setúbal’s communist mayor André Martins is becoming increasingly isolated.