Investigators on Thursday, May 28th, searched the headquarters of Portugal’s Socialist Party as they probe suspected bribes paid for municipal contracts, the country’s main opposition party said.
Police said in a statement that five people had been arrested and 37 formally placed under investigation following raids on 60 homes and 32 other buildings.
The judicial police said they were investigating alleged corruption in the awarding of contracts by local authorities in the Lisbon region and in the central city of Coimbra.
The contracts were awarded “with obvious damage to the public treasury,” said a police statement.
A Socialist Party statement said individual officials were involved in the investigation but denied that the party as an entity had been “targeted.”
Portuguese media reported that among the suspects were a former Socialist official at a Lisbon town hall and a communications advisor to the Socialist leadership.
The revelations come just a day after the Madrid headquarters of Spain’s ruling Socialist Party were also raided by police on Wednesday.
Former Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was placed under formal investigation last week, in one of many corruption cases piling pressure on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government.
