Former defence chief of staff calls for ‘intelligence’
Former Chief of Defence Staff Henrique Gouveia e Melo has rejected the idea that increasing defence spending in Portugal means cutting back drastically on the welfare state.
Slowly easing himself towards a candidacy for the presidency of the republic (which polls suggest he will win hands down), the former naval admiral stressed there is no dichotomy between cannons or butter. “It’s cannons AND butter”, he told a debate yesterday. “In this case, cannons to protect the butter and, of course, butter to sustain the people who are handling the cannons…”
The former ‘vaccine czar’ who became an icon for competence and precision during the pandemic was talking at the debate “Portugal’s role in the world”, organised by the youth arm of SEDES (the association for economic and social development).
Without ever committing to a candidacy for President of the Republic – something that will have added to the irritation already felt by people who have declared their interest already – Gouveia e Melo was asked whether it would be necessary for Europe to cut back on the welfare state in order to increase the investment in defence that has been demanded by NATO and the United States.
‘I’m not going to talk about Europe, I’m going to talk about Portugal because that’s what interests us”, he said. “There is no ‘or’, there’s an ‘and’. It has to be both. Of course we mustn’t cut back on the welfare state, because that’s what has guaranteed European solidarity and cohesion, which throughout the world is one of the hallmarks of our society and our positive edge”.
If investment in the military area results in a “more productive and technological economy”, the Gross Domestic Product will grow and it will be possible to direct this increase to other areas, he added.
“The welfare state is not an on-off switch. We spend around 64%, 65% of state spending on the social area. If we spend 64.5%, the welfare state won’t collapse the next day. We have to find synergies and be more efficient”.
Equally, additional funds for Defence could come from other places than social spending.
“The state has to decide that. The government has to decide that. Denying the problem is no balance at all”.
The former admiral was also asked about the possible return of compulsory military service (SMO), which he has rejected in the past, again referring to ‘the government’ on this point.
“There is no need to move towards compulsory military service. There are other ways of organising ourselves as efficiently or more efficiently,” he said, pointing out that Portugal currently has around 23,000 military personnel and “twice as many police officers”. How about some of those becoming armed forces reservists?
“Up to the age of 50, with the right incentives, these men can become reserves. They go about their lives, but in case of need and urgency, they could return to service in the Armed Forces. And they’d already have the training”. Obviously, there would need to be “fiscal or monetary incentives” – but it is all a question of thinking outside the box.
Regarding the war in Ukraine and the attitude of the new US administration, Gouveia e Melo said, very much like many before him, that Europe has had “signals that it has ignored” for far too long. It is time now to act, and stop complaining about it.
“There is a military formula, which is very simple, but which details the power relationship between various powers: it says that power equals capacity times will. Does anyone doubt that the European Union has a greater capacity than the Russian Federation?”’” he quizzed
Rather than discussing the percentage of investment in defence, Gouveia e Melo called for efficiency.
“We have increased our health spending by a significant percentage. Has our health system improved in proportion to the increase in this expenditure? There is clearly a need for rationalisation and greater efficiency in the Portuguese state,” he said, warning that otherwise “money is being thrown into an endless pit”.
And as to the ‘burning question’ of when will he declare his intention to run for the presidency (and at least put the other contenders out of their misery of anticipation), the former admiral said he is taking his time. In fact, he (correctly) pointed out there is a lot of time left: the presidential campaign won’t hot up until the summer; elections are not until January next year.
“I am following my path. I have just left the Armed Forces, I have given myself some time to distance myself from them and now I am contributing with my opinion in the public space” he told the barrage of media cameras.
