TAP inquiry wraps up with evidence from key players // Experts criticise lack of help for smokers wanting to quit
Portuguese news in English on Monday, June 19, 2023.
TAP inquiry wraps up with evidence from key players
The long-running parliamentary commission of inquiry into the political management of Portuguese airline TAP has wrapped up after almost 50 hearings, Diário de Notícias reports. Finance Minister Fernando Medina and former infrastructure minister Pedro Nuno Santos were among the last to front the commission last week. After weeks focusing on the firing of an adviser and calling of the spy services to recover a government computer, the hearings returned to its original theme: a €500,000 payout to former TAP administrator Alexandra Reis, who then became Secretary of State for the Treasury. and the later firing of TAP CEO Christine Ourmières-Widener and chairman Manuel Beja, at least partly based on the fact they’d authorised the payout, which was judged to be illegal by the Inspectorate-General of Finance.
Nuno Santos, who was the infrastructure minister at the time, told last week’s hearing he authorised the payment but didn’t follow the subject any further, instead leaving it to lawyers and the relevant secretary of state, Hugo Mendes, Público reports. What’s still left to explain is how neither Nuno Santos, Mendes nor chief-of-staff Maria Antónia Araújo remembered this when the matter was first raised publicly in December, and why none of them raised concerns when Reis, after being fired from the Treasury, quickly moved on to NAV — the state-run airspace management company — without returning the payout. Nuno Santos said he always acted in “good faith”. Medina, who invited Reis to join the government after leaving TAP and made the decision to fire the CEO and chairman, defended the move in his hearing and subtly tried to distance himself from Nuno Santos, Público reports. Medina said he picked Reis for the Treasury job based on her experience in the public and private sector. The commission now moves into its next phase, the preparation of a final report.
Need a quick summary? Here's “Josh from the New York Times” who sums things up much more humorously.
Experts criticise lack of help for smokers wanting to quit
While smoking prevention experts have generally applauded Portugal’s current attempts to cut down on the availability of tobacco, they’ve pointed to serious gaps, Público reports. Currently, the state doesn’t co-pay for any medications or therapies to help smokers quit, meaning they must pay for everything out of their own pocket. This is a big obstacle to quitting, the experts argue, particularly for those with lower incomes. On top of this, consultations for intensive help to quit still haven’t recovered from a big pandemic drop-off and some places have a months-long wait list. Doctors and researchers who spoke to the newspaper stressed the most important element of reducing smoking was to stop people starting in the first place but said increasing access to quitting aids would send an important signal at a time when the government is pushing controversial restrictions.
Anger as bushfire memorial opened without ceremony
There is anger among the survivors of Portugal’s devastating 2017 bushfires after a monument to the victims was opened not with a ceremony, but with a phone call, Diário de Notícias reports. The Pedrógão Grande Bushfire Victims’ Association criticised the move not to hold any type of ceremony on Saturday, the anniversary of the fires that killed 66 in the area, among 115 who died nationally that year. It’s the first time the anniversary hasn’t been marked by an official visit and comes after repeated promises in the wake of the tragedy that the area would never again be forgotten. A special bushfire combat unit can count on its largest allocation ever this year: 12,000 firefighters and 72 aircraft costing €52.7 million, and prevention spending has quintupled since 2017, Diário de Notícias reports.
In brief
European Central Bank hikes interest rates to highest level in 22 years. The bank has lifted rates at eight consecutive meetings, taking the rat to 3.5%, and signalled another increase to come next month. (CNN, in English)
Lisbon's Discoveries Monument to finally be classified as a monument. The imposing structure and tourist attraction, which is controversial due to its links to the former dictatorship and Portugal’s colonising past, has never had any protection as an important public structure. (Diário de Notícias)
Government's housing strategy risks violating data protection rules. Legislation defining the concept of abandoned homes and proposed changes to the National Rental Desk could violate GDPR provisions, the National Data Protection Commission has warned. (Público)
Portuguese scientists developing edible COVID-19 vaccine. The Polytechnic Institute of Porto researchers are testing their vaccines, in yoghurt and fruit juice form, in vitro, before moving on to animal trials. (CNN Portugal)
On a lighter note
Until this week, I didn’t know you could review wedding cakes, much less giant 12-metre-high ceramic statues of wedding cakes. But apparently you can, and this one, created by Portuguese sculptor Joana Vasconcelos, is worthy of five stars, according to The Guardian. The English paper calls the creation, constructed in the Rothschild family’s Waddesdon Manor, “kitsch and beautiful, absurd and captivating”.
“This may be the first wholeheartedly joyful artistic masterpiece of the 21st century,” it says. The immense structure is covered with about 25,000 azulejos and 1,300 ceramics from Portuguese studio Viúva Lamego. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa travelled to England to officially unveil the cake on June 15, celebrating the 650th year of the world’s oldest alliance, between England and Portugal.
Bonus lighter note
Here’s a sight an Aussie never expects to see in Portugal. A kangaroo escaped from a home in Vizela, north-west of Porto, and was filmed running down the road. Naturally, the evasive marsupial, which is reportedly legally owned by a local, made the news Down Under.