PM stresses security forces won’t be offered “a cêntimo more”
Police syndicates have reportedly rejected the ‘call to demonstrate’ sent out by right wing political leader André Ventura, stressing that politics and union business must be kept separate, while prime minister Luís Montenegro has also drawn a line in the sand over the long-running battle for a fair risk subsidy.
Talking in Sintra today, he insisted “not a centimo more” will be offered by the government to the various unions and syndicates representing Portugal’s police and security forces.
“An enormous effort” has already been made to put the record straight, he said. And he will not lead the country into financial instability (by promising things that cannot be afforded).
All in all, it has been a sobering Tuesday after the furore generated over social media, in which CHEGA essentially told police “we need you to demonstrate inside and outside parliament” on Thursday, when a CHEGA motion for a higher risk subsidy than the government is prepared to give comes up for debate.
Reports stress CHEGA made a cardinal mistake: it suggested that ‘it needed police’ to demonstrate. Ventura actually used the words “We need you (…) I need you to come to parliament, in the galleries and outside, to show your strength”.
Paulo Jorge Santos, president of the Police professionals trade union association, told Diário de Notícias: “We should not confuse political action, which is up to the parties, with trade union action, which is up to the unions”.
In Santos’ perspective: “We have not deliberated, we have not agreed, within the union, on any protest for July 4”.
This does not mean there won’t be a protest. The inorganic ‘Movimento Zero’ has maintained its call to police to take a stand, “but it will be on an individual basis”, explains Santos.
Bruno Pereira, spokesman for the platform of PSP and GNR unions and associations, agrees, suggesting that André Ventura’s appeal was not “proper”, certainly not what is “expected” from a political leader.
Commentator Helena Matos told Rádio Observador that what she sees in Ventura’s video is “a dangerous loser (after the European elections) trying to somehow recover his agenda, using the security forces to do so”.
Whatever the case, Luís Montenegro has laid out the government’s cards: the offer on the table is the offer on the table. It is not going to change.
“We respect everyone’s political opinion, but we don’t hesitate to denounce, to fight, to confront those who are guided by opportunism, by the instrumentalisation of real problems. On Thursday, we’ll see whose side everyone is on and we’ll all be here to take responsibility for what they decide,” the PM concluded.
