Following a meeting at the Liga dos Combatentes in Lisbon, José Luís Carneiro refrained from commenting on the PJ searches conducted at TAP, Grupo Barraqueiro, and Parpública, expressing hope that justice “fulfills its duties in its own time.”
Regarding the letter sent to the Prime Minister by Luís Montenegro about TAP’s privatization, which calls for a meeting on the issue, the PS leader reiterated the party’s goals. He emphasized the state’s medium- and long-term reimbursement of funds invested in the company during the pandemic.
“I must say that at their request, the three interested parties all considered it natural that the capital invested by the state during the pandemic should be reimbursed,” he revealed.
In the letter to Montenegro, Carneiro stated that “in recent months, and always at the request of the interested parties,” the PS met with “three European publicly listed groups interested in acquiring 44.9% of TAP’s share capital, namely IAG (LSE and Madrid Stock Exchange), Air France-KLM (Paris and Amsterdam), and Lufthansa (Xetra).”
“In each of these meetings, the PS advocated a set of guiding principles deemed essential to ensure public interest, the company’s competitiveness, and its role in the national economy,” the letter reads.
Today, in statements to journalists, the PS leader suggested that “it is neither necessary nor essential” for the Prime Minister to respond to the letter, considering its “alert effect.”
“As an alert effect, it is also a contribution from the opposition to ensure that the privatization process meets the publicly assumed priorities, both by the government and the various opposition parties,” he explained.
According to the socialist leader, the most crucial objective is to maintain Lisbon’s strategic hub, enabling the Portuguese capital to remain the primary operational center in Europe with the Atlantic access guaranteed and safeguarded.
“Another goal, equally important, is to ensure that the company’s operations, maintenance operations that have significant effects on our economy and highly qualified employment, are also guaranteed and maintained in Lisbon,” he added.
Currently, TAP, the Grupo Barraqueiro, and Parpública are being searched by the PJ, with several media outlets citing alleged crimes in the privatization completed in 2015.
The Attorney General’s Office confirmed in September last year the receipt of the Inspeção-Geral das Finanças report on TAP’s 2015 privatization, forwarding the document to the Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action.
The inquiry in question was opened in February 2023 as a result of a complaint filed by Fernando Medina and Pedro Nuno Santos, then ministers of Finance and Infrastructure and Housing (PS), respectively.
In mid-October 2022, Pedro Nuno Santos disclosed that TAP’s administration had requested an audit after suspecting that it was paying more for aircraft than its competitors and that the government had forwarded the findings to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
One of the most discussed topics in the 2023 Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry on the Political Oversight of TAP’s Management was the Airbus funds. This deal, spearheaded by David Neeleman’s DGN, involved the cancelation of a prior contract for leasing 12 A350 planes and the establishment of a new contract to acquire 53 aircraft of a different range.
