The Funchal City Council has announced that it publicly repudiates the statements of Élvio Sousa, the JPP regional deputy about LIDL’s business in Madeira.

It is worth remembering that Élvio Sousa, at a press conference held at ALRAM, asked if “Pedro Calado was preventing LIDL coming to Funchal?” Stating that only two of the four LIDL projects have been accepted by the CMF.

In the counter-response, the municipality declares that “the JPP and Deputy Élvio Sousa insist on the repeated lie and gratuitous provocation about the licensing of the LIDL projects” and questions whether the “JPP has a special interest in the business”.

Funchal City Council Press Release:

“From the first moment, the Funchal City Council has always said that the LIDL will be evaluated like any other business. Furthermore, the CMF has always clarified publicly that the German chain already has 2 licensing processes completed (Poço Barral and next to the Assicom Rotunda), with another 2 under consideration (Rua Dr. Pita and Largo Severiano Ferraz).

The City Council reiterates that it has every interest in making LIDL’s investment in Funchal viable, as long as all legal precepts are complied with.

It will be up to the investors, and never the municipality, to announce when, how, and why, these investments will be made.

“And,” said the Mayor, “it is worth reminding the JPP – which deliberately omits, that from what was made known to the Funchal City Council, the Administrative Court of Funchal understood that the JPP’s request can directly harm third parties, so it asked the company to comment. As a result, the municipality knows that LIDL has already forwarded to the court its request to dismiss the request for a subpoena, because the information requested reveals a commercial secret and the internal life of the company, thus agreeing with the Funchal City Council. And if the request is granted, according to LIDL, it should only be after the conclusion of the pending licensing processes in the Municipality of Funchal.

The matter is now between LIDL and the plaintiff, and the municipality will respect what the Court decides.”

Knowing this position of LIDL, the question that arises is: why does JPP omit in its communications that the German company has already communicated to the Court that it does not want to reveal its commercial position to them?

Samantha Gannon

info at madeira-weekly.com