The republic’s presidency said in a written note this Wednesday that it has never contacted TAP or any member of the government to change a return flight from Mozambique in March 2022.
“The Presidency of the Republic has never contacted TAP nor any member of the government in this regard. The Presidency of the Republic has never requested a change of the TAP flight, if that were to happen it would be at the initiative of the travel agency been,” reads the note, sent to Lusa.
This position comes after the parliamentary inquiry committee TAP discussed an email exchange between the then Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Hugo Mendes, and the chair of the Executive Committee of TAP, Christine Ourmières-Widener, about the possible postponement of a flight with the head of state, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, as a passenger.
The Presidency of the Republic states that “The President of the Republic traveled to Mozambique in March 2022” and that “the trip was handled by the usual travel agency, which will have taken several steps and finally found an alternative with TAAG, via Luanda , on the 23rd, but the return from Mozambique finally took place on March 21, 2022, on a regular TAP flight (TP182)”.
In the same note he adds: “We became aware of this matter on February 11, 2022, when the CEO of TAP asked the Chief of Staff, during a dinner at the Élysée, at the invitation of President Macron, regarding the Saison Croisée France Portugal, whether His Excellency the President of República had requested a TAP flight change on March 24, which was immediately denied”.
Asked about this issue in a committee of inquiry by Liberal initiative deputy Bernardo Blanco, Christine Ourmières-Widener said on Tuesday that she was doing everything she could to check whether it was really a request from the presidency of the republic to change the flight.
“In the end, I was not surprised to realize that the President of the Republic would never ask us to change a flight, which would have an impact on the rest of the passengers,” said the manager.
In the exchange of emails, the former Secretary of State for Infrastructure Hugo Mendes argued, according to what was read in the Commission of Inquiry, that it was important to keep Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa as an ally of TAP.
Source: DN
