“O government announcement [Regional] that it will cancel the privatization process and launch a new procedure [para a privatização da Azores Airlines] turns out to be good news for the Azores and for the Azoreans, because it is also the recognition of the Government [de] that failed in the process that it designed and implemented until now”, said Carlos Silva, member of the Azorean PS secretariat.
According to statements by the socialist released by the party, at the beginning of the process, the coalition executive “spoke about a process with more than 30 interested parties and it culminated in zero, because it was cancelled”.
“And it was a procedure that did not defend the regional interest, did not safeguard jobs, did not safeguard the maintenance of the headquarters in the Azores. And all of this was said several times, over the last year, by the PS, by others parties, the social partners, and the Government [Regional] always ignored”, he continued.
The socialist also recalled that the Azorean executive “also withheld information from parliament about the privatization process”, information that “until today remains unknown”.
The Government of the Azores announced today the cancellation of the privatization tender for the airline Azores Airlines and the launch of a new one, claiming that the company was valued at six million euros at the beginning of the process and is now worth 20 million, but denied that the reserves on the competing consortium weighed in on the decision.
At the beginning of April, the jury for the public tender for the privatization of Azores Airlines delivered the final report and maintained the decision to accept only one competitor, but admitted reservations regarding the ability of the Newtour/MS Aviation consortium to ensure the company’s viability.
The Board of Directors of the SATA group, led by Teresa Gonçalves, who has since resigned, expressed “reservations about the NewTour MS Aviation consortium and the competitor’s limitations” in the opinion sent to the Regional Government.
The PS/Açores hopes that “this time the Government [Regional] manage to be more transparent, more competent and more professional, in a privatization process that is necessary, which was negotiated with Brussels”.
“But what was negotiated with Brussels was the sale of, at most, 51%. Therefore, it doesn’t make any sense for the Government [açoriano] make the same mistake and go beyond what was negotiated with Brussels. It is important that the Azores maintain a relevant position in the share capital of the Azores Ailines, because only in this way will they defend the regional interest”, argues Carlos Silva.
Finally, the socialist highlighted that the announcement of the suspension of the Azores Airlines privatization process, made by the coalition government during the electoral campaign for the regional elections, “was nothing more than a farce, because everyone already expected what ended up happening today , which was the cancellation of this process and the launch of a new one”.
For the PS, in this process, the Regional Government “has been deceiving and deceiving the Azoreans”, which it considers “regrettable”.
Read Also: Azores Airlines. Consortium threatens action after cancellation of privatization
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