Director of PJ Luís Neves is the new Minister of Internal Administration

President of the Republic accepted the Prime Minister’s proposal. Luís Neves replaces Maria Lúcia Amaral and takes office on Monday. From the RTP bathroom to skinheads, here is the new minister’s CV.

The President of the Republic accepted the Prime Minister’s proposal to appoint Luis Neves for the role of Minister of Internal Administration, replacing Maria Lúcia Amaral, read a note this Saturday from the Presidency of the Republic.

“The President of the Republic accepted the Prime Minister’s proposal to appoint Dr. Luís Neves as Minister of Internal Administration. The inauguration will take place next Monday, February 23, at 10:00, at the Belém Palace”, adds the same note.

Luís Neves succeeds Maria Lúcia Amaral, who presented her position because she considered she did not have the personal and political conditions to continue in the position, after the wave of criticism to the way he acted and managed the response to the Kristin depression that hit the country at the end of January. At a time when the national continental territory was hit by a wave of storms, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro temporarily assumed the portfolio that will now be assumed by Luís Neves.

Skinheads, Tancos, Madeira and more. Luís Neves’ CV

With a degree in Law, Luís Neves, national director of the PJ since 2018, joined the Judiciary Police in 1995, after a brief stint as a lawyer. He was Director of the National Counter-Terrorism Unit (UNCT) and the extinct Central Directorate for Combating Banditry (DCCB).

At the PJ, Luís Neves has always been linked to criminal investigation, particularly in the sphere of violent and organized crimeterrorism and all forms of violent extremism, kidnapping, kidnapping, hostage taking, armed robbery, arms trafficking, trafficking in human beings, crimes committed using explosive devices and crimes against sovereign bodies.

In units combating violent and organized crime, the name of Luís Neves was linked to the investigation, among others, of the cases of dismantling of ETA cells in Portugal, of and of the far-right leader, the arrest in Italy of the SIS spy and the case of, suspected of the murder of several young people.

One of his first high-profile cases occurred when Manuel Subtil found himself in an RTP bathroom, in January 2001, demanding compensation and threatening to kill himself. He turned himself in several hours later.

Luís Neves, headed the UNCT, investigated the robbery and theft of military material in . In recent years, the national director of the PJ was also associated with the dismantling of eastern mafia networks and criminal groups that robbed ATMs using explosive material.

Under the leadership of Luís Neves, the PJ also launched one of its largest operations, moving to the Madeira archipelago more than a hundred inspectors, in a process involving suspicions of corruption, malfeasance, abuse of power and influence peddling, among others and which also targeted the Regional Government, making several arrests, including the mayor of Funchal, Pedro Calado, and constituting the president of the local executive, Miguel Albuquerque, as a defendant.

He is also responsible for the arrest of the former banker in South Africa, after months of investigation into his whereabouts, and the banker spent more than a year on the run from the Portuguese authorities, after being sentenced to an effective prison sentence of three and a half years for qualified fraud.

Luís Neves’ direction was also marked by modernization of the PJ and reinforcement of staffincluding specialists and expert technicians, for the absorption of part of the staff from the extinct Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) and for a high salary increase for inspectors, via risk allowance, which would end up motivating the protest of the PSP and GNR police officers who demanded negotiations from the Government for equal treatment.

Last year, in a hearing at the Assembly of the Republic, Luís Neves, stating that violent crime is lower among immigrants than among nationals, attacked the “fake news” that tries to create panic in Portugal.

During his career, Luís Neves was awarded the Police Cross of Merit granted by the Spanish Minister of the Interior in 2004 and the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Spanish Civil Guard Corps, granted in 2007, also receiving a decoration from the Vatican.

First steps

In addition to having to start preparing for the next season, firesLuís Neves at the head of MAI also has as his mission the reform of Civil Protection, which the Government had promised for the end of 2025 but which the Prime Minister has now announced for after the fires, and the changes in SIRESP.

The previous minister also left an ongoing negotiation process with the PSP unions and GNR associations, but which was taking place amidst protests, with even the largest police union abandoning negotiations in December.

Luís Neves will also have to face the problems that have arisen at airports, particularly at Lisbon airport with long waiting hours, which in April will have the European border control system operating again, which has since been suspended.