Tiago Petinga / Lusa
Prime Minister repeats that Portugal is one of the safest countries in the world but we cannot “live in the shadow of the banana tree”.
The Prime Minister announced last night that the Government will approve on Thursday in the Council of Ministers an authorization for expenditure of more than 20 million euros for the acquisition of more than 600 vehicles for PSP and GNR.
Luís Montenegro was speaking to journalists at the end of a meeting lasting about an hour with the Minister of Justice, Rita Júdice, the Minister of Internal Administration, Margarida Blasco, the national director of the Judiciary Police, the general commander of the GNR, the national director of the PSP and the deputy secretary general of the Internal Security System.
“I have repeatedly said that Portugal is a safe country, it is even one of the safest countries in the worldbut this context has to be worked on and achieved every day”, he defended.
In a statement shortly after 8 p.m., Montenegro took stock of an operation underway since November 4th between various police and administrative forces, “Portugal always safe”, announcing that it had already resulted in the dismantling of “two criminal networks within the scope of illegal immigration and the human trafficking”.
When asked whether a press conference on this topic at 20:00 cannot create alarmism, the prime minister rejected this interpretation, saying that it was “the time that was possible to reconcile everyone’s agendas”.
“It is our obligation to inform the country of what is being done, of the objectives that underlie a decision that the Government took of greater policing, of greater presence on the ground of all police forces and also, within the scope of this campaign ‘Portugal Semper Insurance, interaction with other State entities and services, with a view to promoting the inspection of various activities”, he explained.
The objective, he explained, is to reassure the population, emphasizing a message that had already been passed on Tuesday.
“I repeat, Portugal is a safe country, Portugal is one of the safest countries in the world, but it is necessary don’t live in the shade of the banana tree of a past performance. We have to take actions to ensure that in the future we will have even better security conditions, less crime and also less perception that security may be at stake”, he explained.
Asked about the PS leader’s criticisms, Pedro Nuno Santoswho accused him of disputing the security discourse with Chega, said he limited himself to “listening and recording”.
“Our focus is not working for the opposition, our focus is working for the populations, our focus is working for the people, our focus is fulfilling our responsibility. The opposition does its job, we do ours and in four years the Portuguese will draw their lessons”, he said.
As for the issue of maintaining confidence in the minister Margarida Blasco, Montenegro considered it a “just rhetorical” question.
“Of course, all members of the Government have my full confidence for the exercise of their functions and therefore are in the fullness of their action. In particular, the Minister of Internal Administration, as well as the Minister of Justice, are doing an exceptional job in relation to the challenges that lie ahead of us”, he said.
Montenegro insisted that one cannot “let feelings of insecurity grow or serious criminal phenomena” to safeguard “the individual freedoms of each citizen” the economic asset that represents the country’s security.
