Russiagate: PS in Lisbon criticises Moedas’s “policy” and says the chamber “can and should appeal”

On Wednesday, the PS in Lisbon City Hall criticised the “policy” of the president of the executive, Carlos Moedas (PSD), regarding the judicial decision to fine the municipality for sharing data on Russian activists, stating that the municipality “can and should appeal”.

“The PS regrets the policy pursued by Carlos Moedas, along a line that has unfortunately been developing. “The last person who can speak of a heavy legacy is the person who has spent the last three years taking charge of the works and measures that were in progress when he took power,” the Socialists said in response to the Lusa agency.

This is the ruling of the Administrative Court of the Lisbon Circle on the The process known as “Russiagate” was motivated by the exchange of data on Russian activists by the capital’s city council.with the court’s decision to condemn the municipality to pay a fine of 1,027,500 euros.

After learning of the sentence, the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas (PSD) said that this fine is a “heavy legacy” left by the previous socialist executiveunder the presidency of Fernando Medina (PS).

“We regret the heavy legacy, but we will defend the people of Lisbon,” said the Social Democrat, noting that, in defence of the interests of the people of Lisbon, the city council is considering whether to appeal the court decision.

Rusiagate. Court rules that Lisbon City Hall will have to pay one million euros for revealing data on anti-Putin protesters

According to the PS council, in a courtroom the size of the one in Lisbon “there are dozens of cases in dispute, with amounts that far exceed one million euros, and this is not a unique or unprecedented case”.

“The Bragaparques case alone, which dates back to the PSD era in the municipality, still has a case to be resolved worth tens of millions of euros,” the socialists recalled, stressing that the court decision known today on the “Russiagate” case is subject to appeal and “the court can and must appeal.”

Rejecting the idea of ​​a “heavy legacy”, the PS highlighted that the municipality’s accounts, when Carlos Moedas took office in October 2021, “recorded a positive balance for 14 years consecutively, with the municipality’s debt registering historic lows,” indicating that, in the last six months, the PSD/CDS-PP leadership obtained two loans worth 133 million euros, for which the municipality will pay 43 million in interest.

“A heavy legacy is the financial chaos that the municipality is currently experiencing,” the socialists accused.

Also in relation to Carlos Moedas’ public position on the “Russiagate” process, the PS said that it expects “different institutional behaviour” from a mayor of Lisbon.

“The municipality did not begin with Carlos Moedas and will not end with his mandate. There is a line of continuity that crosses presidents and political colors that demands a different decorum when assuming responsibilities,” the socialist council reinforced.

Without giving further details, the Lisbon City Council confirmed that it was aware of the ruling by the Lisbon Administrative Court, “by virtue of which he was ordered to pay 1,027,500 euros.”

“The court reduced the fine from 1.25 million euros to one million euros,” the municipality’s lawyer, Tiago Félix da Costa, told Lusa.

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The lawyer said that the decision has not yet been notified, so “strictly speaking, it has not yet come into force”, confirming the news published by the online newspaper Observador on the ruling of the Lisbon Administrative Court.

According to the Observer, the Lisbon Administrative Court considered that some administrative offences were subject to a statute of limitations This led the National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) to fine the Lisbon City Council, setting the fine at 1,027,500 euros, 222.5 thousand euros less than expected.

Asked whether Lisbon City Hall intends to appeal, Tiago Félix da Costa said he does not know yet and said it is up to the municipality to decide.

On June 21 this year, the defense of the Lisbon City Council, which requested the appeal of the fine imposed for sharing data of Russian activists, considered that there would be no way to condemn the municipality, due to the lack of a sanctioning rule.

On that date, oral arguments took place at the Lisbon Administrative Court, in the Campus of Justice (Parque das Nações), in the judgment of the Lisbon City Council lawsuit, led by the social democrat Carlos Moedas, to challenge the fine imposed for sharing personal data of promoters of demonstrations in the city with external entities, in the case known as “Russiagate”.

In January 2022, the CNPD imposed a fine of 1.25 million euros on the municipality for breaching the General Data Protection Regulation by “communicating the personal data of the promoters of demonstrations to third parties”. The CNPD identified 225 administrative infringements in communications made by the municipality in the context of demonstrations, rallies or parades.

The fine is the result of a process opened following a report – submitted to the CNPD on March 19, 2021 – on the communication by the municipality of Lisbon, when it was chaired by Fernando Medina (PS), to the Russian embassy in Portugal and to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the personal data of the promoters of a demonstration held at the embassy.

The activists, dissidents of the Russian regime, had staged a protest in January 2021 for the release of Russian government opponent Alexey Navalny, arguing that the Lisbon City Council had put his safety and that of his relatives in Russia at risk by publishing their information.