Fernanda Câncio, the journalist and ex-girlfriend of José Sócrates, has broken cover in an explosive revelation published today in Diário de Notícias.“He lied, he lied and he lied again," writes Câncio. In fact he "lied so often and so well" that he managed to get a lot of serious people not only to believe him but to defend him, in private and in public.
José Socrates "lied to the country, his party, his supporters, his comrades, his friends" and those who were "closest to him," writes Câncio in an opinion piece that will not best please her former lover who, anyway, is running out of supporters.
According to Cancio, Socrates pretended to everyone that he had a family fortune, even rejecting income he was entitled to as he was someone who did not need money.
"It created a web of deception. He lied, he lied and he lied again," and "In doing so, he could not ignore that he was not only abusing the good faith of these people but exposing them to the danger that if one day they discovered the truth, they would be considered his accomplices.
“He could not ignore that the party he led, the governments he presided over, even the policies and ideas for which he had fought, would be tarnished, as if by toxic mud, by dishonour in the face of such a revelation," cries the former girlfriend who had enjoyed an excellent vantage point.
According to the journalist, who was José Sócrates’ amour when he was prime minister, if the expenses paid by Santos Silva were an unimportant detail, "why ... was it carefully hidden from the country," says Câncio.
As for the sequence of statements by Socialist Party ‘big beasts’ last week, which led to the voluntary resignation of José Sócrates from the party, Câncio writes that the party was "confused and spoke of criminal suspicions," instead of focusing on the inescapable truth, “that he has deliberately deceived everyone."
One of Socrates' lawyers resigned in mid-April, citing differences of opinion over strategy. With João Araújo quitting the former PM's team, Pedro Delille is now in charge of the former PM's defence.
João Araújo represented José Sócrates for five years and worked on a defence for charges resulting from Operation Marquês.
Araújo commented at the time of his resignation, "It's a matter between me and José Sócrates, I do not want to clarify anything."
João Araújo had been the lawyer for Maria Adelaide Monteiro, Sócrates’ mother.
