Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa resigned on Tuesday, after police raided his official residence as part of a corruption investigation.
Cops searched Costa’s official residence and detained his chief of staff, Vítor Escária, Portugal’s attorney general said earlier Tuesday.
According to a statement issued by the Portuguese Prosecutor’s Office, Costa — who has been prime minister of Portugal since 2015 — is himself being investigated as part of the probe.
The investigation is linked to lithium exploration schemes in the north of the country and a green hydrogen mega-project in Sines.
Costa’s Socialist government has enthusiastically backed numerous schemes to extract lithium in different areas of Portugal as part of the EU’s wider drive to secure critical raw materials, but those projects have been mired in controversy because of the low quality of the elements set to be extracted and the disproportionate environmental damage expected from the operations.
This story is being updated.