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Portugal's government in hot water as TAP airline scandal deepens

Sergio Goncalves
·2-min read
The first A330neo commercial passenger aircraft for TAP Air Portugal airline is seen at the Airbus delivery center in Colomiers near Toulouse

By Sergio Goncalves

LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's government fired the chief executive of flag carrier TAP last month without a legal assessment of the move, Finance Minister Fernando Medina has acknowledged, deepening a high-profile scandal around the state-owned airline.

His remarks in parliament late on Thursday contradicted claims by two fellow ministers a day earlier that the government had obtained a legal opinion backing the decision. This heightens chances of the state losing a potential lawsuit by the sacked executives worth millions of euros.

The growing controversy around TAP, which has already led to resignations in the government, could hinder Lisbon's preparations to privatise the airline, with bigger foreign rivals Lufthansa, and British Airways owner IAG laying the groundwork for potential bids.

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CEO Christine Ourmières-Widener and chairman Manuel Beja, were dismissed with just cause on March 6 after an inspection found that a 500,000-euro ($547,750) severance payment to former board member Alexandra Reis was illegal.

After Ourmières-Widener called her sacking "illegal", the main opposition Social Democrats warned that unless the decision had proper legal backing, the state could lose an eventual court dispute.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ana Catarina Mendes and Cabinet Minister Mariana Veira da Silva said on Wednesday the government had obtained a legal opinion backing the decision, but refused to send it to parliament to "safeguard the public interest".

But late on Thursday Medina said that the reasons behind the dismissals were "very clear" due to the illegal nature of the severance payment, as established by the official finance inspection, and had no legal opinion attached.

The leader of the far-right party Chega, Andre Ventura, said "the government acknowledged it had lied" and urged Prime Minister Antonio Costa to consider whether Medina was fit for the job.

In a tweet, Liberal Initiative party leader Rui Rocha called the situation a "festival of incoherence and total disrespect for parliament".

($1 = 0.9128 euros)

(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; editing by Andrei Khalip and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)