The testimony of the (still) top man of TAP, the French Christine Ourmières-Widener, on Tuesday in the parliamentary inquiry committee TAP, has at least three ministers come under fire. It also caused a problem between the President of the Republic (PR) and the government over alleged attempts to change the schedule of a presidential flight from Maputo to Lisbon in March 2022. And this Wednesday, on the same committee, Alexandra Reis, the former administrator who left TAP with half a million in damages, contributed to further damage to the image of former Infrastructure Minister Pedro Nuno Santos, by revealing that she made herself available for him to resign without charge – only this did not answer.
In the case of PR, Christine Ourmières-Widener revealed that she had received an email from the (then) Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Hugo Mendes, asking him to change a TAP flight from Maputo to Lisbon to accommodate come to Marcelo’s interests. In that email, Hugo Mendes vehemently emphasized the importance
This Wednesday, in a note to Lusa, the Presidency of the Republic assured that “it has never contacted TAP nor any member of the government on such a matter”, that is, “it has never requested any amendment to the TAP flight” and “if that happened, it must have been at the initiative of the travel agency”.
The same note 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, at the 23rd, but the return from Mozambique ended on March 21, 2022 on a regular TAP flight (TP182)”.
“We became aware of this matter on February 11, 2022, when the CEO of TAP asked the Chief of Staff at a dinner at the Élysée, at the invitation of President Macron, whether His Excellency had the President of República on March 24 requested the TAP flight change, which was immediately denied,” said Belém.
As for the government, there are essentially two reasons for embarrassment, one concerns Galamba (Infrastructure Minister) and Ana Catarina Mendes (Parliamentary Affairs) and the other concerns the Chief of Finance, Fernando Medina.
As for Galamba and Ana Catarina, the problem revolves around the revelation, by the still CEO of TAP, that he will have met with representatives of the PS, which will have been promoted by the Minister of Infrastructure and managed by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, on January 17, the day before the manager went to Parliament to explain Alexandra Reis’s departure from the national airline’s administration for the first time.
As for Fernando Medina, the problem also stems from Christine Ourmières-Widener’s testimony Tuesday in the parliamentary committee of inquiry.
The manager revealed that on the eve of the government’s announcement of her resignation (6 March last), the finance minister called her to ask her to resign, “despite all the pressure from various parties” – but telling at the same time she who had had “phenomenal results” and a “fantastic job” as manager of TAP. It was with astonishment that the same government fired her for just cause the next day.
Despite all this, the pressure from the opposition is for the head of government to declare himself.
Source: DN
