Mendonça Mendes becomes Costa’s deputy secretary of state
The current secretary of state for fiscal affairs is a strong man in the Socialist Party (PS), leading the socialist federation of Setúbal.
António Mendonça Mendes, current secretary of state for fiscal affairs, will be the new deputy secretary of state of the prime minister. To replace Miguel Alves, a former Caminha mayor who left the Executive involved in controversy, António Costa turned to an influential socialist leader with experience in the Ministry of Finance.
The post had been vacant for around three weeks since Miguel Alves resigned after being accused of prevarication in the so-called Operation Web. The president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has already accepted the changes in the government and this proposed appointment, having scheduled the inauguration for Friday, December 2.
Current president of the Setúbal Federation of the Socialist Party (PS) and brother of the minister of parliamentary affairs, Ana Catarina Mendes, the lawyer born in 1976 in Coimbra, the city where he also graduated in law, is António Costa’s new right-hand man. He was the secretary of state for fiscal affairs since July 2017, when he succeeded Fernando Rocha Andrade.
(article last updated at 5h35 pm)
