João Relvas / LUSA
Luís Neves and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, at the inauguration of the new Minister of Internal Administration
The new Minister of Internal Administration is Luís Neves: in a short inauguration ceremony, he said that he is open to “positive proposals”.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, gave today inauguration of the new Minister of Internal Administration, Luís Nevesuntil now national director of the Judiciary Police, who in the position was Maria Lúcia Amaral.
In a short ceremony in the Ambassadors’ Room of the Belém Palace, in Lisbon, the three Secretaries of State of this ministry also took office and were reappointed: Paulo Simões Ribeiro, Deputy Secretary of State and Internal Administration, Telmo Correia, Secretary of State for Internal Administration, and Rui Rocha, Civil Protection.
Maria Lúcia Amaral left, but Luís Neves will continue with all of the former minister’s secretaries of state.
This was the composition of the XXV Constitutional Government, the second PSD/CDS-PP executive headed by Luís Montenegro, who took office almost nine months ago, on June 5 last year.
The new Minister of Internal Administration stated that accepted without reservation moving from a leadership role in the police investigation to an executive position, saying that “the national director” of the Judiciary Police (PJ) “does not investigate anyone”.
A few minutes after taking office as Minister of Internal Administration, at the Belém Palace, Luís Neves expressed his willingness to answer some questions and was asked whether he had any reservations about joining the Government, after the PJ had participated in investigations linked to the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro.
“O national director does not investigate anyone. Thank you for the question that was asked so that we can immediately clarify this topic. The role of the national director of the Judiciary Police is to organize, to provide means for an institution”, he stated.
Luís Neves highlighted that the PJ’s basic model “allows information to be stagnant”.
“So I felt completely calm, and very peaceful, regarding my information”, he said.
When asked if he had any reservations about accepting the position, he responded in the negative.
“It doesn’t offer any reservations. I accepted with lots of cheer, aware of the role I played, aware of the role I have and aware of the stagnation of the position I now assume”, he said.
He accepted the new position “without reservations”: “I have the time and capacity, I hope, to listen to all the people“, he reinforced. Luís Neves expects everyone’s support, as “all positive proposals are welcome”.
Are you aware of the challenges of Internal Administration: “It’s always a difficult decision,” but he felt called to “embrace this new project”.
