Maintenance of Santa Catarina plant on S. Jorge and safeguarding of jobs "already announced for a long time," says Berto Messias
The Regional Government, through the Regional Assistant Secretary of the Presidency for Parliamentary Affairs, reminded today that the maintenance of Santa Catarina plant on S. Jorge and the safeguarding of jobs under the divestment process as a result of the restructuring of the Public Sector "have been already been announced for a long time."
"We are surprised with the announcement of a proposal from the Left Block (BE) party. It defends that the specifications of the process for the partial divestment of the Government's stake in the company Santa Catarina should safeguard the maintenance of jobs and the plant's operations; however, the Government had already publicly announced this measures on several occasions," said Berto Messias.
"This BE party's proposal comes late and is, at the very least, quite strange, taking into consideration that, besides all the public statements we have made on the subject, the Government had already responded to a request and I quote: "as regards the specifications of the process, it will safeguard the maintenance of jobs as well as the maintenance of the plant's operations on S. Jorge Island and the respective brand," added the government official.
During a parliamentary debate held in January, the Regional Secretary had already mentioned that the Azorean Government "will not renounce these principles in this divestment process."
"We all have the obligation to qualify Democracy and not to confuse, alarm or deceive people for partisan interests and political gains, especially when it concerns the maintenance of jobs and a very important company for the island of S. Jorge," said Berto Messias. In this regard, "the proposal presented by BE is a politically opportunistic position and a bad contribution of this party to a serious and responsible political debate."