José Sena Goulão / LUSA
The Minister of Internal Administration, Margarida Blasco.
Two weeks later, the ordinance that changed the admission requirements for PSP agents fell. Minister did not listen to PSP unions, who criticized some of the planned changes.
The Minister of Internal Administration revoked This Tuesday the ordinance that changes the admission requirements for the PSP agent training course, just two weeks after being published in the Official Gazette.
The ordinance revoking entry into the Public Security Police was published in the Diário da República and the minister Margarida Blasco justifies the annulment because the PSP unions were not heard, as provided for in the law.
“In this context, it is now necessary to listen to the trade union associations, regarding the principles of the recruitment and selection regime, it is important to revoke the ordinance”, bringing back into force the requirements that were foreseen in the May 2022 diploma, says the document signed by Blasco.
Unions denounced illegality
The one that changed the requirements for admission to the training course for Public Security Police officers was published in the Official Gazette on 2 January and came into force one day later.
This ordinance, which established that the maximum age for admission to the PSP agent course would increase from 30 to 34 years old and to the age of 39 in the case of public employees and military personnel of the Armed Forces, was considered illegal by the PSP unions for not having been consulted, as required by law, in addition to criticizing some of the changes.
Only after the ordinance came into force did the Minister of Internal Administration consult the PSP unions and, in meetings last week and Monday, asked the union structures to present their proposals on admission to the PSP.
In addition to age, the ordinance that has now been annulled also established the end of a minimum entry height on PSPas well as a reduction in physical evidence.
In the 2022 ordinance, which comes into force again, the maximum and minimum ages were also changed, moving on to admission from 19 to 18 years of age (the minimum age) and from 27 to 30 (the maximum age), in addition to allowing young people who are in the 12th year of school to enter training.
Fewer and fewer people want to be agents
In recent years there have been fewer and fewer PSP candidates. In the 1990s there were more than 16,000 candidates and in 2012 there were more than 10,000, now less than 3,000.
Last year, the PSP held a competition to register for reservations to enter the agent training course and 2,800 young people competed.
Data sent to Lusa at the time showed that 2,865 candidates had applied for the agent course, 178 fewer than in 2023when 3,043 competed, 640 fewer than in 2022 (3,505), 2,709 fewer than in 2021 (5,574) and 321 fewer than in 2020 (3,186).
