Friday, March 29

Lisbon City Council fined for disclosing data on Russian opponents to Putin


Lisboa

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The Lisbon City Hall, conservative since September but governed by the socialists for 14 years, has been sentenced by the National Data Protection Commission to pay 1.2 million euros in compensation for disclosing personal information of Russian opponents to Vladimir Putin protesting in the Portuguese capital.

And it is that the previous mayor, the socialist Fernando Medina, authorized the provision of personal information of the protesters to Russia each time a rally was organized in the streets of Lisbon. For this reason, it is called ‘Russiagate’ in Portugal, aggravated by a similar attitude towards China, Venezuela and Israel.

The current mayor, Carlos Moedas, was elected to head the Municipal Corporation on September 26 in part due to the unrest among citizens as a result of the unusual disclosure of data.

For this reason, he now indicates: “This decision is a heavy legacy that the previous City Council team leaves to the people of Lisbon.”

The strong controversy was unleashed last year when the veracity of the facts, recognized by Medina himself, was verified. See its denouement now as a stick, ahead of the imminent legislative elections on January 30.

The Socialist City Council was hit by an unprecedented barrage of criticism, after the then mayor admitted having handed over to the Russian authorities the personal data of three ‘activists’ (one of Portuguese nationality and two Russians), who organized in the capital of fado a demonstration in favor of Alekséi Navalny, the leader opposed to Putin, when he was recovering from being poisoned after challenging the president of the ex-Soviet Federation.

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The detailed information was sent to the Russian embassy in Lisbon and also to the cabinet of Vladimir Putin himself. And immediately, the reactions were immediate, as a whole political storm unfolded around the issue.

The accusations of having acted in the style of the Soviet State itself occurred in the Portuguese territory from north to south. Even the PSD, the main party of the right, broke its usual tepidity to proclaim that it would go to the European institutions. Fernando Medina hid behind a brief: “It was a mistake that should not have happened,” while turning a deaf ear to the calls for resignation that accumulated throughout the neighboring country.

The controversy did not stop expanding, since some voices even declared that it was not the first time that a ‘tip’ of these characteristics had occurred, as was later confirmed in relation to Israel, China and Venezuela. How is it possible that a democratic government of the European Union has become entangled in such a diplomatic labyrinth? Is it the symptom that NATO can hardly trust Portugal or is it very exaggerated to raise a question of this caliber? They are just some of the questions of this style that dotted the television talk shows and jumped at street level.

Medina’s cabinet was stunned and it was difficult to get it right before public opinion. It’s not that the consequences were unpleasant, it’s that the polls showed that his popularity began to plummet. They wanted to fix it by starting the process of destroying the data of the people involved, but it was too late.

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