PCP releases book to ‘resist privatization’ of TAP

On Tuesday, the PKP released a book aiming to “resist TAP’s privatization” at a meeting in which the party’s general secretary said that “if privatization were synonymous with development, Portugal would be at the top of all rankings.” ‘”.

The book titled “The TAP Dossier: Resistance to Privatization”, written by the PCP team, was presented on Tuesday at a meeting in Lisbon, ahead of the report of the commission of inquiry into TAP’s activities, which will be considered in the plenary meeting.

In his speech at this session, the general secretary of the PKP considered that the book was his party’s contribution “not only to the resistance to the privatization of TAP, but also to a clear exposure of the tragedy of the privatization process” in Portugal.

According to the leader of the PCP, “if privatization were synonymous with development, Portugal would be at the top of all ‘international rankings'”.

“But privatization in our case is really synonymous with the decline and suffocation of the economy, shortages and production imbalances, loss of state resources and sovereignty. (…) They are an objective, explicable and provable form of encouraging corruption,” he said.

Paulo Raimundo mentioned that public companies are scrutinized, as opposed to private groups that operate “in another world, people who consider themselves untouchable and consider themselves the owners of it all.”

“Therefore, we are not surprised by what we are seeing this Tuesday in Altice Portugal, formerly PT. It is necessary to find out and investigate all the possible crimes that have been committed, the biggest crime, the main crime that opened the way for all other paths is the privatization of the PT,” he said.

Speaking about the privatization of TAP, Paulo Raimundo believes that “big capital” wants the airline not to “do a favor”, but because he knows “it’s worth it”.

“It costs a lot and can cost even more if it is managed and developed in the interests of the country,” he said.

Speaking before the commission of inquiry of the airline’s management, the PKP Secretary General considered that this parliamentary body “could and should have gone further”, but, “despite everything, it was worth it.”

“It was clear that they intended to transform the commission of inquiry into the TAR and turn it into a tool to promote its privatization, but since the intervention was focused on what was fundamental, the PKP saw that its theses (…) were supported by the revealed facts” . he referred.

Paulo Raimundo stressed that it had been proven that both the €500,000 award to Alexandra Reis and the €55 million awarded to David Nieleman “were settled between law firms approved by the government and both without any legal basis.”

The Communist leader argued that this revelation should refer to “a more general problem of arbitration courts”, arguing that “when one of the parties to a dispute is the state”, representatives of the two parties meet and agree on the value that the taxpayers will have to pay.

“Every year, hundreds of millions of euros are taken from the state treasury, from our pockets to economic groups. Now there is a fairness issue worth facing, let’s see if there is anyone available,” he said.

According to the PCP Secretary General, the TAP inquiry panel was clear about the “opacity” of the airline’s activities, or even the fact that it was bought by David Neeleman with the company’s own money.

“We need to draw conclusions and start managing TAP precisely as a public company, and not as a private one, as some would like (…) and, of course, we need to put an end to the path of privatization,” the message says.