Alberto João Jardim has defended Filipe Sousa, the former mayor of Santa Cruz and current JPP member of the Portuguese parliament, following a Public Prosecutor’s Office investigation into an alleged undue advantage involving a rental car.
Writing on X, the former president of Madeira’s Regional Government questioned the grounds for the investigation and called for constitutional reform covering the judicial system and the status of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Jardim argued that Sousa had saved the council money by accepting a courtesy from a car rental company and criticised what he described as the use of the justice system against politicians.
His comments follow a request by prosecutors for parliament to lift Sousa’s immunity so that he can be questioned as a formal suspect in connection with a vehicle rented from Cassiano’s Rent Car in February 2025.
Prosecutors suspect that Sousa was exempted from paying €1,618.96 for 28 days’ rental because of the public office he held at the time.
Sousa denies accepting any exemption and says the invoice was paid in full in July this year. He also maintains that his mayoral mandate was suspended during the period concerned because he was standing in Madeira’s regional elections.
Jardim’s intervention follows a similar public defence by Regional Government president Miguel Albuquerque, who described the case as “nonsense” and said he had no doubts about Sousa’s honesty despite their political differences.
Albuquerque also criticised what he described as hypocrisy surrounding investigations into political office holders.
The case remains under investigation.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
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