2023-04-28 01:20:54
The documentation sent to TAP’s parliamentary inquiry committee proves what we all already knew. The way in which the Government dismissed the CEO and the chairman of the board of directors of TAP is wounded in legitimacy, with a real mess that could cost Portuguese taxpayers a few million euros.
As much as the Government tries to turn the page on TAP, holding a press conference on the privatization of the company (where little new was announced) on the same day that the documentation relating to the resignation of the CEO reached Parliament, everything indicates that this This case will continue to weaken an Executive that even already resorts to complaints in the ERC against uncomfortable news, which is usually characteristic of worn out majorities and at the end of the cycle.
Having arrived here, several questions remain to be answered, starting with how Minister João Galamba explains the information released yesterday by SIC, about the alleged combination of questions and answers by the CEO in Parliament. It is yet another serious episode in which the version presented by the Executive contradicts other information and facts that have become public.
Another question that needs to be answered, this time not in the context of the commission of inquiry, is whether the Government will be willing to reach an agreement with Christine Widener that will prevent a long legal battle that could have very negative consequences for both parties and cost the state millions.
In addition to the issue of just cause, which seems to be hanging by wires, the former CEO’s contract was not ratified by the company’s own bodies and TAP has not yet approved a management contract that allows it to set objectives and pay bonuses to directors.
Both facts are attributable to the State and the French manager will be able to argue in court that she has fulfilled her part, although, according to experts, it is her responsibility to warn the shareholder of non-compliance with these obligations, which she did not do. As the lawyer Rogério Alves said on CNN a few days ago, in this episode no one looks good in the picture and we are facing a legal imbroglio of great dimensions.
In short, the TAP soap opera promises to continue in the coming months, at the pace of the Commission of Inquiry, wearing down a Government that, in the eyes of public opinion, seems less and less a friend of truth and transparency. And fueling populism and demagoguery, with all the negative that this brings to our democracy.
#TAP #political #legal #imbroglio #continue