IL says government should be selling 100%; other parties question “hurry”

Today’s announcement by the prime minister that the government is preparing to ‘sell’ 49.9% of TAP (but won’t do so if it doesn’t get the right sort of offer) has not gone down well with opposition parties, essentially for financial reasons. So much money has gone into this airline, parties want to see the ‘investment’ coming back. Selling just under half of the company is unlikely to do that.

IL (Iniciativa Liberal) therefore has expressed “profound disillusion” that the government is being so ‘unambitious’, and selling only 49.9% of the company. The party’s Mário Amorim Lopes suggested that this will mean the state “will continue to be called on to place money into an airline company” which he claims “barely serves” its population.

PS Socialists have said they agree in principle with reprivatisation, but want to see the full €3 billion (plus) that the Portuguese state has ploughed into it recouped (something that even former PS prime minister António Costa said years ago was highly unlikely).

LIVRE cannot understand the rush; PCP communists call the plan “an economic crime” (because of all the money that the state has put into the airline this far…); Bloco de Esquerda is against reprivatisation full stop – pointing out that TAP is just at a point where it is ‘making money’; PAN also is highly suspicious, suggesting there should be a public consultation exercise before any decisions are made – and JPP (the party representing Madeira) just wants more details.

All in all, for an announcement which really only said ‘more of the same’, it has generated a lot of heat. ND