TAP’s deal “will be ruinous for Portugal”
The injunction presented to suspend the TAP's state loan is still active, guarantees the president of the Porto Trade Association.
The president of the Porto Trade Association said that the injunction the entity filed to prevent the injection of public money into TAP is still active, “even though the government announced that it would present a reasoned resolution.
In the agreement’s wake between the government and the private shareholder which will cause the strengthening of the State’s position in the airline from 50% to 72.5%, Nuno Botelho indicated that the possible injection of 1,200 million euros into the company “will be a ruinous business for Portugal.”
This association has advanced in court against the Council of Ministers to stop the state’s capital injection into TAP. In the view of the government and TAP, it is possible to overcome this injunction by invoking the “public interest” of the operation. Therefore, the Council of Ministers approved this Thursday a document that may allow the resumption of the process.
“This measure aims to prevent the state from financing TAP, which is a burden on all taxpayers, without the company providing public services to the country,” explained Nuno Botelho, in statements broadcast by television stations. “We couldn’t remain silent in the face of what we think will be a ruinous business for Portugal,” he added.
The president of the Association has criticized the way public money has been managed in recent history, pointing out that there are “several examples of companies in which the state has been called to deposit money in an absolutely absurd way, in a ruinous way, harmful to public accounts.”
For Nuno Botelho, to put a “huge amount of money” into a company, “it has to provide a public service, it has to be a flagship company”. “It’s not normal for a person who lives in Minho, Trás-os-Montes or the Algarve to pay for a company that doesn’t provide a service,” the president of the Porto Trade Association reiterated.
