Luís Montenegro says firefighters’ image has been “penalised” by Tuesday’s “excesses”
Reacting to Tuesday’s tense firefighters protest, Portugal’s Prime Minister has clarified that calls for a pay rise “will not be decided on the basis of coercion.”
“Everyone needs to realise that the government will never decide on the basis of coercion, nor will it ever decide on the basis of those who want to go far beyond our possibilities and what we are offering other similar public administration careers,” said PM Luís Montenegro this Wednesday.
Speaking in Celorico de Basto, in the district of Braga, where he inaugurated a health centre, Montenegro stressed that the government will not be complacent “with violations of the rules of the rule of law”, nor with “unbridled demands for situations of relative injustice or imbalance”.
Montenegro told journalists that he will never go “beyond the limits of what is acceptable”.
On Tuesday, the government suspended negotiations with the firefighters after an unauthorised demonstration of professional firefighters used firecrackers in a protest outside the government’s headquarters.
The prime minister has now called on everyone who wants to demonstrate to be responsible, to do so within the limits of the law and within the limits of what is “socially acceptable.”
“I believe that the very image of the firefighters has been penalised by the excesses that have been committed,” he said.
Luís Montenegro said that the negotiations with the professional firefighters “are already at an advanced stage”, drawing attention to “the government’s efforts to meet not only the enhancement of their careers, but also the sense of equality and fairness throughout the public administration”.
“All the careers that we have been upgrading need to realise that we don’t have unlimited resources, we can’t constantly negotiate and, above all, create the expectation of offering what we don’t have to give,” he added.
For the head of government, what is being done in a special way for the firefighters is an effort that, from the point of view of fairness, is in line with what has been done with the police forces and the armed forces.
Source: LUSA
