Hey City Zen!

Well, I am happy they are prosecuting Jose Socrates because it may be a sign of a mature democracy. On the other hand, the key offending item seems to be a 3 million euro apartment he is renting in Paris (for post-graduate education), which is relative peanuts… For a different perspective, this will just show future Portuguese prime-ministers that they have to accept gifts from lobbyists in the ways of more sophisticated democracies: e.g. 750.000$ speaking fees after leaving office, gifts for presidential libraries, Schroeder becoming a Gazprom employee after supporting the Nord Stream pipeline as prime minister, Aznar becoming a member of the board of directors at the News Corp empire, Blair with a net worth of 60 million pounds after leaving the government, accept to become the president of the EU (like tax-haven Juncker and our own Barroso for services well done in support of Bush/Blair’s war). I think Jose Socrates may have just been a naïve, small-time crook in such company.

Labels: Politics, Portugal