António Costa admitted in parliament this Thursday that the state could lose money with the privatization of TAP, which the prime minister wants to take place over the next 12 months, with Lufthansa expected to compete.
In response to Liberal Initiative (IL) Deputy Carlos Guimarães Pinto, the prime minister (PM) said he can rule out “only if he is irresponsible” the possibility that the sale of the airline will not bring in income less than what the state has already spent on the company. And he also spoke about the German airline: “Of all your questions there is only one really relevant part, which is that, thanks to the fact that Lufthansa has returned to the state what it had received, it is now free, before the European Commission, to proceed with the acquisition of other airlines.”
For the rest, there was little news in the debate. The prime minister assured that the government expects economic growth next year, albeit cooled by the inflation crisis. “Next year we don’t have a recession in our scenario.” Polled mainly on the left, it has not taken any measures to dampen inflation, for example in interest rates on mortgages. TNor did it suggest an immediate response to the crisis in the housing supply to foreign university students.
On the right, it was confronted with all the “cases” that have occurred within the majority of the PS in recent times. Chega called for the resignation of no fewer than three ministers: Health (because she was married to the president of the Association of Nutritionists), Economy (because they were unauthorized when he proposed a “cross-cutting” cut of the IRC), and Cohesion (because she was married to a businessman who received public money).
The debate was also marked by a disclosure by IL, via João Cotrim de Figueiredo, that China would have “ploughs” in Portugal to repatriate Chinese people wanted by their country’s legal system. Costa said he didn’t know anything about the story.
Source: DN
