Late this morning the government announced that it had decided to start the first phase of TAP's fourth privatisation process. After the first attempt almost destroyed TAP with the bankruptcy of the buyer - Swissair. After the third attempt ended with the capitalist fleeing and the company going bankrupt. Now the government intends to hand over to foreign capital that which is one of the main national companies, the country's biggest exporter of services, the guarantor of our territorial continuity and sovereignty in air transport. A privatisation that comes at a time when TAP is stabilised, capitalised and able to grow when it is no longer conditioned by the impositions of the EU, which objectively has done everything to condition TAP and favour the large multinationals in the sector.
The government's announcement, when talking about the first phase, also shows that it still intends to privatise the entire company, despite the statements to the contrary by both the PS and Chega when they made this government and its programme viable. There can therefore be no illusion: we are not talking about partial privatisation, but full privatisation carried out in stages.
The big multinationals want TAP not because it's worth little, but because it's worth a lot and could be worth even more if it were managed to serve the interests of the people and the country.
At a time when the government has done nothing to recover a cent of the 6 billion euros offered to the multinational Lone Star with the Novo Banco process, Luís Montenegro's statements that the sale of TAP is to recover the money invested in it are ridiculous. The money invested in TAP is recovered every day that it operates as a public company, in the profits and dividends it generates, in the wages it pays in Portugal, in what it contributes to Social Security and Income Tax (IRS), in the 4% it contributes to GDP, in the importance it has in the balance of trade, in the national sovereignty it guarantees to a country with two island regions, with important Portuguese communities in the world, with a brutal weight of tourism in the economy.
We are facing an announcement of yet another economic crime that this government and those who support the privatisation of TAP want. But as before, we will continue to fight against the privatisation of TAP, which has already been stopped or reversed four times.
In view of what has been said here, in view of the policy of handing over national assets and resources - whether in banking or aviation - to foreign capital, in view of the convergence we have seen between the PSD/CDS government, Chega, IL and the PS in this policy of abdication and robbery, the need for a different course for the country is becoming increasingly clear.
