The Minister of Economy and the Sea said this Thursday that the government’s goal is to “attract the largest number of proposals” for the privatization of TAP in order to carry out “a deal that will benefit the country.”
During this afternoon’s sectoral policy debate in Parliament, António Costa Silva responded to criticism from Chega MP Andre Ventura, who accused the minister of “incompetence when he says he recognizes the benefits of buying TAP by Iberia.”
“You are completely incompetent with regard to the management processes and transactions of the company. When we are in the process of a company’s transactions, the main goal is to attract the most offers, and when I made this announcement, which was in Spain, we need an offer. from Iberia, from Lufthansa, we need other companies, because more offers make the process competitive, and it is fundamentally important for us to make a deal that will benefit the country’s destinations,” he replied.
Having made it clear that “the choice will be made by the prime minister and the government”, the minister considered that in this choice of the buyer for the airline “everything weighs”.
“Now what we have at this stage is to attract the largest number of proposals,” he insisted.
Referring to an interview with the minister to the Spanish newspaper Eleconomista.es, André Ventura criticized the idea that it would be profitable to sell Iberia as it is TAP’s “biggest competitor” and wants to “make Madrid a reference point for airports in the Iberian Peninsula”.
“We have an economy minister who, as far as I know, wears red and green on his lapel instead of yellow and red on his lapel, and says it’s a good idea for us to sell Iberia.
Chega’s intervention period was marked by several exchanges of accusations between Andre Ventura and Costa Silva.
“No one knows who will win the next election, but I would cut off that hand because the Socialist Party will not win the next election again,” Ventura said, showing his right hand and repeating “this hand, this hand over here” several times.
In response, the minister warned President Chegi that this thought about the hand should not be repeated many times, otherwise it would really have to be cut off.
To Ventura’s criticism that he was conducting a “political purge” of the ministry with recent layoffs, Costa Silva countered that the Chega MP had “much more experience in purges” than he did, and made it clear that “the world is made for change.” “.
According to the Minister of Economy, when you listen to Ventura’s speeches, you can see that “he has no idea about the country’s economy.”