After the resignation of the Prime Minister of Portugal Antonio Costainvestigated for corruption, the country’s president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced this Thursday that he is dissolving the Assembly and calling early elections for March 10, 2024.

Costa resigned from his position this past Tuesday in the middle of an investigation into alleged irregularities committed by his administration in the management of lithium and hydrogen mining projects in the country. Thus he has put an end to his mandate that began in January 2022 and continued the bad statistics of the Portuguese prime ministers, since since the end of the dictatorship, only five of the 15 prime ministers have lasted their entire term.

Consequently, the president of the country has decided to dissolve the Assembly and call elections. Rebelo de Sousa has opted for the option that had been most popular these days and which the leaders of the parties with parliamentary representation advocated during the meeting he held with them this Wednesday, although the president of the Socialist Party, Carlos César, expressed his desire to not to go to elections and to be able to appoint a new socialist prime minister with the support of Parliament.

This past Tuesday, the Prosecutor’s Office searched the headquarters of the Ministries of Infrastructure and the Environment, as well as some of the offices of Costa’s official residence for alleged irregularities in the granting of public contracts on exploitation of lithium deposits and production of clean energy with hydrogen.

Therefore, the elections in Portugal will take place on March 10, 2024, elections in which António Costa has already ruled out his presentation.