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Portuguese Newspaper Organised Bilderberg Meeting Sojornal, company which owns Portugal's largest weekly newspaper, Expresso, was given millions of escudos by the Portugese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to organise last year's "secret summit" of world leaders at the luxurious Penha Longa resort in Sintra. According to the weekly "O Independente", it appears that THE NEWS was not the only newspaper (as was believed) to have entered to the premises of Penha Longa resort in June last year while the secret Bilderberg meeting was taking place. Sojornal, which owns both Portugal's best-selling newspaper (Expresso) and magazine (Visao), was awarded approximately 40 million escudos (200,000 euros) by the Portuguese government to organise the 1999 Bilderberg meeting. Initial claims by the Bilderbergs that the taxpayers' money was not being used for the event (a means by which the group's absolute "privacy" and secrecy was justified) are therefore inaccurate. The total cost of the meeting was reported to have amounted to 76 million escudos (380,000 euros). According to Sojornal, the money received from the state's coffers to organise the meeting was not a subsidy, but rather a sponsorship for the organisation of the event. The Bilderberg group was founded in 1954, when its first meeting was held in the Netherlands. The secrecy which clouds this group is one of its principal characteristics, given that not even its members are allowed to divulge items discussed at meetings. The Bilderbergs are deemed by those who cover its secret meetings, to be a group, which acts above governments, therefore even having the capability as to deciding who should govern next. Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Antonio Guterres all attended Bilderberg meetings shortly before being elected to power. At the 47th Bilderberg meeting in Sintra, staged between June 2 and 6, the presence of a total of 119 participants from 21 countries was recorded. Among the Portuguese present were former prime minister and chairman of Sojornal, Francisco Pinto Balsemao, President Jorge Sampaio, former Transport Minister and current socialist MP Joao Cravinho, PT chairman Murteira Nabo, Banco Espirito do Santo chairman Ricardo Salgado and BPI chairman, Artur Santos Silva. THE NEWS first reported the presence of the Bilderbergs in Portugal in April of last year, thereby claiming the world scoop on the venue, dates and participants of the 1999 meeting. But any of the Sojornal publications could have obtained the accolades, as the first "sponsorship" to organise the meeting of 15 million escudos (75,000 euros), was paid on February 10 of last year-almost three months before THE NEWS first covered the story. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stipulates that the Bilderberg 1999 meeting officially served to "analyze post-Cold War international relations". |
