CDS has signed an agreement to buy and sell the party’s two local headquarters – Beja and Vagos – with its municipal coordinator Fernando Barbosa to obtain minimum financial conditions for accessing the upfront government subsidy for local elections to a banking institution, BPI.
Through this contract, Fernando Barbosa deposited one hundred thousand euros in the party’s account so that it could receive funding of one million euros from BPI. After the party received this “loan” (officially corresponding to the advance on the municipal subsidy), the party immediately returned one hundred thousand euros to Barbosa, and the bill of exchange was not fulfilled. The land registers of this enterprise, to which Nascer do SOL had access, date from August 19, 2021: about a month earlier than the municipal ones. And without this financial push from Fernando Barboza, CDS was at serious risk of not being able to nominate municipal candidates.
It should be noted that Fernando Barbosa never actually bought the property: there was, rather, a down payment for each headquarters (which adds up to the indicated € 100,000). Fernando Barbosa, head of the Rodrigues dos Santos campaign in the internal elections against Nuno Melo, confronted Nasser before SOL, confirms the facts: “I never wanted to buy anything. The group was in financial trouble, I asked for help and I said I was available. After that, the problem was resolved at the bank. They had to have a guarantee, it was a guarantee. “
However, real estate served not only as a “legal vehicle” for transferring money to CDS. They also served to ensure that if the CDS management did not return the 100,000 euros to Barbosa, he would not be left empty-handed: “The contract was a guarantee that the party would go bankrupt tomorrow. He was ready to help the party, but he never offered money. ” Thus, it was “an act of solidarity in a potentially alarming situation”, because “if there were no bank credit, there would be no municipal authorities. [para o CDS]”.
In Sunrise, the party confirms the scope of the promise to sell the headquarters, but refuses to be a mock deal, according to Barbosa, to open access to bank financing for 100 thousand euros. According to CDS, the hundred thousand euros that Barbosa is signaling have nothing to do with the subsidy that BPI is expecting. However, the party acknowledges that the debt sales agreements of the two headquarters were signed with Barbosa, and the actual risk of bankruptcy of the party for local authorities.
In a written response sent to Nasser do Sol, the CDS-PP General Secretariat begins by explaining that when the current leadership inherited the party in Aveiro, it found it “in an absolutely precarious financial position: in addition to gigantic bank liabilities – about 700 thousands of euros – (…) dozens of debts have accumulated to the providers of the most essential services for the party’s activities ”. This set of debts threatened to “paralyze” their “daily activities” and “even endanger their survival.” This situation, according to the CDS management, has been improving, presenting a “positive operating result” at the end of 2020. In that sense, in passing, he even organized a “regional election campaign in the Azores without a single cent of bank funding.”
However, there is an approach of local authorities, and the problem is “aggravated”. “Due to the party’s commitments of over one million euros,” BPI refused to receive a loan. Then the CDS was “forced to immediately get rid of the real estate”: “the proceeds from the sale will partially pay off the bank’s debt and finance the direct costs of the election campaign.” And it is here – “in this context of urgency” – that Fernando Barbosa steps in. “The General Secretariat has started the process of identifying potential stakeholders and potential buyers of the group of properties. Based on the results of real estate appraisal (…) [de] independent organizations, Municipal CDS Coordinator [Fernando Barbosa] made a purchase offer. ” Taking into account “the absence of other offers and taking into account that the offered price covered the value of the property as determined in these valuations”, the party accepted it by entering into the “promised sales contract”.
Thus, Barbosa contributed “as an initial contribution and principle of payment, an amount of EUR 100,000.” “However,” the party explains, BPI “proposed to anticipate the size of the said government subsidy through immediate amortization of part of the pre-existing debt that CDS-PP accepted”. This expectation made the “immediate sale of the property unnecessary.” Due to the cancellation of CDS, Fenando Barbosa will be legally entitled to a refund of double the contract value. He rejected it, both sides celebrating a “peaceful settlement of the bail agreement” – what CDS singles out as “remarkable proof of their loyalty and dedication.”
