Medina is confident that the state is protected by the “reality of facts” when the TAP CEO is fired

The finance minister said this Thursday that the state is protected by the “reality of the facts” on the basis of the resignation of the former TAP chief exec rehabilitated by the government with good cause, given that the arguments used are strong and obvious.

Fernando Medina spoke to reporters at the end of parliamentary hearings at the Commission on Budget and Finance (COF) when asked if the state was protected by the decision to dismiss Christine Urmier-Widener.

“I feel that you are protected by the reality of the facts. Does anyone in our country understand that a payment of half a million euros, which the General Inspectorate for Finance (IGF) considers illegal, is not a serious violation?” he said. .

The official reasoned that if the payment of €500 million in compensation to former TAP administrator Alexandra Reis was deemed illegal by the IGF, “this is grounds for dismissal for good reason in accordance with the law.”

“Interested parties have the right to challenge this in court. I think that the arguments to consider the illegal payment of 500,000 euros are serious, I think they are clear to me, they are weighty, obvious,” he said. .

During this Thursday’s COF hearing, the finance minister indicated that there was no “additional opinion” justifying the resignation of the “chairman” and president of the executive committee (CEO) of TAP beyond what the IGF report suggests.

This is the opinion that allegedly served as the basis for the dismissal of the TAP chief executive for a good reason, which Fernando Medina said this Thursday that it does not exist, after the government acknowledged its existence through the ministers of the President and Parliament. Affairs

When asked about the statements of the executive on Wednesday, referring to the opinion, the minister did not fully answer the question, repeating several times that the final decision made at the general meeting contains the set of arguments that the shareholder understood for making such a decision. given that “if anyone intends to challenge this decision, they should challenge this document”, since “everything is there”.

To the argument used by the executive that “its disclosure is at risk for the legal defense of the position of the state”, Fernando Medina argued that “requests that were made in the statements of PSD officials” were outside the scope of the content of the General Assembly. : “It came from what was done in terms of paperwork.”

“It doesn’t matter financially. From a material point of view, there are these documents, these decisions, which were approved by the General Assembly,” he said.

Fernando Medina emphasized that he did not ask for the opinion of any law firm, but advised himself: “The government only made a decision after we asked the IGF for a full and comprehensive assessment, which took many weeks, months to make this assessment and come to conclusion. for illegal actions,” he repeated.

During the hearing, Medina assured that providing information to the CPI would never be a problem, but added: “There is no opinion, the idea was created that there would be an opinion … there is no additional opinion on which the grounds for dismissal are based.”

The minister clarified that “then follows the translation of the IGF report in the form in which the shareholder’s action to initiate the dismissal process approved at the general meeting of the company, the message of intent to dismiss, is basically translated. Then it is the response of those concerned regarding this intention, and then the final decision regarding this process. That’s what exists.”

Declaring that “the work is done […] in the transformation of what is the basis of the IGF report on the decision”, he added that the government will wait for the request that the commission will send, and based on this request, “analyze what is posted”, guaranteeing: “We will definitely provide everything that can be provide”.