Mark protest for April 25; threaten to boycott events
In a letter written by an inorganic group of police officers, members of the country’s security forces have said that “after the meeting with the Minister of Internal Affairs, it is easy to conclude that the government wants to deceive and mislead us“.
They are thus preparing a major protest for the April 25 (commemoration of Portugal’s ‘liberty’) and threatening to boycott the security of events like Rali de Portugal and the traditional students’ Queima das Fitas in Porto.
Expresso has had access to the letter circulating among Portugal’s police forces. The aim of their actions are to put pressure on the government to meet the demands of the PSP and GNR as soon as possible.
“If there is no agreement by May 10, two months after the elections, the police will not provide cover on May 11 and 12, the weekend in which Rali de Portugal takes place,” reads the document, quoted by Expresso.
Demonstration in front of the Parliament
The same movement has also scheduled a demonstration for April 25 (Liberty Day, in this case the celebration of 50 years of Portugal’s ‘liberty’) in front of the Assembly of the Republic.
As a PSP commissioner has explained, “what really got to them (meaning the government) pre-elections, was the police boycotting of football matches” – hence the decision to start boycotting various ‘fixtures’.
All this acrimony centres on the decision by the last government to increase the ‘mission supplement’ of the PJ judicial police, without doing so for the other security forces.
In the letter circulating, the movement insists that the mission supplement “must be transversal to all security forces” and that “those who don’t have the right to strike should be listened to and valued”.
“It’s easy to conclude that the government wants to deceive us.”
The letter also recalls that Luís Montenegro, before the legislative elections on 10 March, “said that he was going to resolve this injustice quickly”, yet “after the meeting with the Minister of Internal Affairs, it is easy to conclude that the government wants to deceive us”.
Paulo Santos, president of the Trade Union Association of Police Professionals, points out that “there is budget funding, there is general agreement among political parties that (our) claim is justified and there is a strong lack of motivation in the PSP”, which is why he has demanded that the Ministry of Internal Affairs “present a proposal”.
“It shouldn’t be the unions that do this, because it is a way of inverting and confusing public opinion,” he adds.
Paulo Santos admits that he doesn’t agree with the inorganic movement’s protests, but if the Ministry of Internal Affairs doesn’t present “a concrete proposal in line with what is expected, it will make sense” to go ahead with them.
Source material: SIC Notícias
