Doubt, uncertainty grip Portugal after ex-premier is jailed in fraud and corruption scandal
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Portugal's former Prime Minister Jose Socrates, at left in the back seat of the car, leaves a court in a Portuguese police car after being questioned, in Lisbon, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014. Socrates, who was Portugal's center-left Socialist Prime Minister from 2005 to 2011, was due in a Lisbon court Sunday for a closed-door interrogation, deciding whether he should answer charges of alleged corruption, money-laundering and tax fraud. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) (The Associated Press)
After he left office three years ago, former Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates' home address was a smart apartment in Paris' classy 16th arrondissement.
On Tuesday, he spent his first day in prison after a Lisbon judge ordered him detained while the ex-leader fights accusations of corruption, money-laundering and tax fraud.
The downfall of the former center-left Socialist prime minister, who during his six years in power introduced abortion on demand and gay marriage in his mostly Roman Catholic country, stunned the Portuguese.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It also discredited the country's political class just as the economy is struggling to recover from the eurozone debt crisis, when Portugal needed a 78 billion euros ($97 billion) bailout.
Before the scandal, the Socialist Party was predicted to comfortably win back power in next year's elections.