A phrase attributed to Luís Neves, Minister of Internal Administration since February, is circulating on social media, allegedly shared by the newspaper Expresso. The quote is, however, false. SIC Verifies.
The image, with a quote attributed to Luís Neves, the Minister of Internal Administration (MAI) sworn in in February, is causing people to talk. From Youtube to X (formerly Twitter), the storm of criticism deepens and it is even believed that the phrase was said by the new MAI.
“Yes, violations have increased significantly, but my focus is hate speech and far-right groups, that is the real threat to the security of the Portuguese”, it reads.
Below the letter ‘E’ with the same graphics as the Expresso newspaper, implying that this was news shared by the Impresa group newspaper. The narrative is, however, false, distorting the image of the newspaper to spread misinformation.
If you look closely, you will see that upper right corner there is a small watermark of a kind of purple facesomething that would not be in a real publication of the Expresso newspaper.
When searching for the citation in question, a complete absence of any news from Expresso that goes in this direction, something that would be expected if the minister had made such a statement. By carrying out a reverse search for the image it is also possible to conclude that this one just circulates on social media with this quote.
When we see the same image in credible media outlets, what is at stake is the minister’s inauguration or his profile, as is the case of or the . The above quote associated with Luís Neves does not appear anywhere.
Regarding hate speech, the a society “based on equality” and highlighted the role of misinformation as a risk factor, not having recently spoken about the increase in rapes in Portugal.
According to the o rape crime (+6.4%) continues its growth trend and reached “the highest value in the last decade” in 2025. The number of reported cases of rape in Portugal in the year 2025 was 578, which translates, in one year, into 48 rapes per month – 11 per week – and every two days three people are raped. In In the overwhelming majority of these cases, the victims are women.
The attackers are almost exclusively men between 20 and 40 years old and in more than half of the cases they have a family relationship or know the victim.
SIC verifies that it is…
The quote is fabricated and improperly uses the graphics of the Expresso newspaper to appear credible. There is no record of any similar statement made by the Minister of Home Affairs.
