Hugo Mendes, former secretary of state, acknowledged this Wednesday that the view he shared with the former executive president of TAP about a flight from the president of the republic was unfortunate, but assured that he gave no instructions to change the date.
“I am sorry for the comment I shared with the former CEO about the President of the Republic, although I wanted to give someone with whom I had a professional relationship of trust the support that the President of the Republic gave to the difficult decision to make the save TAP,” said Hugo Mendes in his first intervention at the TAP Commission of Inquiry following an email about the change of the date of a flight by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Acknowledging that “he should not have expressed or shared that opinion, either in content or in form”, the former ruler assured that “the initiative not to ask for anything” did not come from him and that he was the “recipient of an e-mail” which the former CEO directed to “express doubt”.
“I have limited myself to sharing an opinion. It was undoubtedly a pity, but I have not given any instructions,” he assured.
According to Hugo Mendes, Christine Ourmières-Widener “both knew it was not instruction and made the decision that she understood was best in terms of her autonomy” and did not change the flight.
“If it had been an instruction that was not followed, it would deserve a call for attention,” he stressed.
Ourmières-Widener sent an email to Hugo Mendes asking his opinion on the request he had received from the travel agency, to which the ruler at the time replied that it was important to maintain Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s political support as he the government’s “most important ally”, but which could become its “worst nightmare”.
Hugo Mendes denies allegations that he prevented TAP from communicating with Finance
The former State Secretary for Infrastructure believed that the allegation that TAP had been unable to communicate with the Ministry of Finance was “ridiculous”, and stressed that negotiations with the European Commission have intensified cooperation between the two guardianship institutions.
Hugo Mendes recalled that “the Ministry of Finance led the critical process” of the negotiations with the European Commission in 2020 on state aid to the airline and the resulting restructuring plan, and therefore considered the idea a “ridiculous allegation”. preventing the airline from negotiating with the financial guardianship.
The former secretary of state for Pedro Nuno Santos’ team stressed that the two guardianships were guided by “intense cooperation”, which grew stronger given the need to negotiate with Brussels, whose only direct interlocutor was Miguel Cruz’s former secretary of state. .
Source: DN
