LISBON: The labour council at TAP, Portugal’s state airline, has promised to step up its fight against privatisation in the wake of the government’s announcement that it had decided to sell a 61 percent stake in the company to the Gateway consortium.
In a statement, the council said that “the struggle against privatisation continues and must even be intensified in this new phase.” It called on all the group’s employees to take part in a meeting on 18 June. “The government is trying to get across the idea that this privatisation is done and is irreversible but the Supreme Administrative Tribunal has yet to make its decision on the provisional injunction submitted, as have the Audit Commission, parliament and Brussels,” the statement said, in a reference to the European Commission.
It accused the government of undertaking a “propaganda campaign” that aimed to convince observers that TAP is worth virtually nothing, by saying that it would be sold for as little as €350 million plus a commitment to invest in 53 new planes. Opposition parties have also accused the right-of-centre government of all but giving away the company at the price agreed, in its rush to privatise it.
The secretary for transport, Sérgio Monteiro, said on Thursday that the privatisation was “from every point of view, in financial terms, a success” and that the decision to opt for the Gateway bid was “unanimous” among the government’s advisors. Officials said that the final price could rise to €488 million, depending on the company’s performance.
