PCP General Secretary Paulo Raimundo on Tuesday defended that TAP should remain in the public sphere and said the move to privatization is an “economic crime” for which the country will pay dearly.
“We believe that a public company, as TAP is today, should have the criteria of public management, not the criteria of private management, which allowed these frauds, and there is no other word to say about this economic crime, for which we will pay dearly in the coming years. ,” He said.
Paulo Raimundo spoke in Minas da Panasqueira, in the municipality of Covilhã, district of Castelo Branco, where on Tuesday he attended the PKP’s national action “More Power to the Workers” with the miners of Panasqueira.
When asked by journalists about the announced privatization of TAP, Paulo Raimundo said that this would be a mistake.
“This is the wrong choice for the government, the wrong choice for the country, the wrong choice for our sovereignty and the Portuguese workers,” he said.
Referring to the fact that the path of privatization has been going on for 20 years, the communist leader also stressed that this path was the cause of the scandals that the country faced in the airline industry. Compensation to former Secretary of State Alexandra Reis is not at stake for the PKP, he said.
“Look at the deals that have been before and that bring us eight, ten, fifteen times more financial damage to our pocket,” he said, stressing that TAP’s problems are not limited to the last two to two and a half years.
In this sense, he insisted that the commission of inquiry of the TAR be extended for the period when Pedro Passos Coelho was prime minister.