Prime minister vows ‘zero tolerance for racial violence and hatred’
At least three violent ‘racist attacks’ against migrants were registered in central Porto in the early hours of Friday morning.
Two migrants have had to be treated in hospital (one due to having leapt from a first floor window).
The attacks began at around 1am in Campo 24 de Agosto: two Algerians were reportedly attacked by a group of five men who fled afterwards in a car.
According to CNN Portugal, the Algerians were “beaten with baseball bats”.
“Minutes later” in Rua do Bonfim nearby, 10 men of the same nationality were attacked by six men armed with baseball bats, knives and a gun in the house in which they were sleeping.
According to CNN, “a dozen Algerian immigrants and one Venezuelan live in the house. For half an hour, these immigrants were beaten, the target of racist insults, and the contents of the house were destroyed.
“While the immigrants were being beaten, one of the victims chose to jump from the first floor to escape the attacks. Housemates told Jornal de Notícias that he fell into the neighbours’ courtyard, suffering “a broken leg and arm”.
Two hours later, in the Batalha area, the same group is understood to have attacked a Morroccan.
CNN describes “a lynching” (or presumably, attempted lynching) foiled by PSP police, who managed to arrest one of the attackers.
Correio da Manhã describes him as “a Portuguese men, aged 26” arrested in Rua do Santo Ildefonso, with an extendible baton and a balaclava spattered in blood (…) While he was detained, another five men who came looking for him at the police station, were identified as suspects of other attacks”.
According to CM, “the arrested man is under a five year suspended jail term for several aggessions in recent years…”
Suggesting that “aggressions and muggings are constants in central Porto”, CM adds that before these attacks (around 10pm on Thursday evening), two Algerians had been intercepted by PSP police in the city, carrying kitchen knives on the Metro.
“They had 12 scratch cards in their possession and €430 in a rucksack”.
CNN’s report also refers to “theorising that these attacks could have been motivated by the wave of assaults and muggings that have taken place in Campo 24 de Agosto and the immediate surroundings”.
Taking to social media, prime minister Luís Montenegro has condemned the ‘racist attacks’ of the early hours of Friday, making no mention of the Algerians arrested carrying kitchen knives on the Metro.
His most recent post on social media network ‘X’, formerly Twitter, reads: “On behalf of myself and the Portuguese government, I strongly condemn tonight’s racist attacks in Porto. I express our solidarity with the victims and reaffirm zero tolerance for xenophobic hatred and violence. And I commend the work of our security forces”.
Comments underneath his post underscore CM’s/ CNN’s hints that migrants could be partly responsible for what is clearly a developing problem.
Says one: “I hope you also condemn the attacks that the Portuguese suffer in their own country. Take a walk in the suburbs. A few days ago a foreigner tried to open my mother’s handbag in broad daylight. I’d like to see these acts of racism and vandalism condemned as well. Thank you.”
Another: “Condemnation of varying geometry. We’re waiting for you to condemn the knife attacks perpetrated by those same communities that don’t want to integrate. If any more proof were needed of your subservience to the EU and its immigration policy, we already have it.”
A third: “Why didn’t you say anything when it was Moroccan and Algerian immigrants attacking the Portuguese in Porto?”
Other commentators refer the prime minister to media clips, in which communities relate incidents involving attacks perpetrated by foreigners in this country.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
