Government “wants to give police better conditions but budget must be consistent with reality,” minister says
Portugal’s interior minister, Margarida Blasco, reiterated on Monday how important it is for to have balanced public finances within the framework of negotiations on pay conditions with the PSP and GNR unions and associations.
“We want to give the national guard (GNR) and public security police (PSP) forces better conditions, but we have a budget and we also have in the government programme that this budget has to be consistent with reality,” she said, continuing: “We have to see what the conditions are and maintain a balanced budget. We have to take into account the balance between public finances and the needs that our police officers have.”
Last Thursday, the government presented a new proposal to the PSP unions, which involves changing the existing fixed mission supplement from €100 to around €280 – an increase of €180, while maintaining the variable component of 20% of the base salary.
Currently, the supplement for service and risk in the security forces includes a fixed component of €100 and a variable component of 20% of the base salary. A new meeting between the ministry of the interior (MAI) and the PSP and GNR unions and associations is scheduled for June 3.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the swearing-in of the deputy directors of the Public Security Police (PSP), at the headquarters of the national directorate in Lisbon, Margarida Blasco also argued that “the profession is already attractive just for being a police officer” and expressed her conviction that it will be possible to strengthen prevention and neighbourhood policing, anticipating the opening of new recruitment tenders for the end of this year.
“There will be police, so we’re reorganising in order to maximise what we have,” she said, explaining that a “survey of the entire territorial apparatus” will be carried out in order to maximise synergies and “rework the organisational model of police stations and offices”.
Also announcing that she will soon be meeting with the mayors of Lisbon and Porto, Margarida Blasco did not rule out a scenario of closing police stations: “The question of closing police stations is one of the points to be studied and this point has to be discussed with the forces, with the local authorities and with the citizens.”
In her speech at the swearing-in of the remaining members of the national board led by Superintendent Luís Carrilho, the interior minister said that new facilities for the PSP could be built as soon as “the most critical and pressing situations” are identified.
In addition to the demand for a “new strategy for proximity policing” and the provision of a “greater number of police officers on the streets”, Margarida Blasco also stressed the government’s commitment to revisiting some action programmes, such as “Safe School” and “Safe Commerce”.
She also emphasised the adoption of measures to reduce discrimination and hate crimes, without specifying which ones, the strengthening of the authority of the security forces through legislation and the analysis of “equipment, resources and new technologies” that could prove useful for police work.
Source: LUSA
