Lisbon, Nov. 28, 2024 (Lusa) - The prime minister has repeated that Portugal "is one of the safest countries in the world", but argued that it cannot "live under the shade of a banana tree" in this matter, reiterating full confidence in the "exceptional work" of the interior minister.
Luís Montenegro was speaking to journalists on Wednesday evening at the end of a meeting lasting around an hour with the minister for justice, Rita Alarcão Júdice, the interior minister, Margarida Blasco, the national director of the Judicial Police, the commander-general of the GNR, the national director of the PSP and the deputy secretary-general of the Internal Security System, at the official residence in São Bento.
Asked if a press conference on the subject at 8pm could create alarm, the prime minister rejected this interpretation, saying that it was "the time that was possible to reconcile everyone's schedules".
"It is our obligation to inform the country of what is being done, of the objectives behind the government's decision to increase policing, to increase the presence of all police forces on the ground and also, as part of this 'Portugal Sempre Seguro' (Portugal Always Safe) campaign, to interact with other state entities and services, with a view to promoting the monitoring of various activities," he explained.
The aim, he explained, is to reassure the public, emphasising a message he had already given on Tuesday.
"I repeat, Portugal is a safe country, Portugal is one of the safest countries in the world, but we must not live under the shade of the banana tree of past performance. We have to take steps to ensure that in the future we will have even safer conditions, less crime and also less perception that safety may be at stake," he explained.
Asked about the criticisms of opposition Socialist Party (PS) leader Pedro Nuno Santos, who accused him of disputing the security discourse with the right wing Chega Party, he said that he simply "listens and takes note".
"Our focus is not on working for the opposition, our focus is on working for the public, our focus is on working for the people, our focus is on fulfilling our responsibility. The opposition does its job, we do ours and in four years‘ time the Portuguese will draw their conclusions," he said.
As for whether he still has confidence in minister Margarida Blasco, Montenegro considered it "just a rhetorical question".
"Certainly, all the members of the government have my full confidence in the exercise of their functions and are therefore in a position to act to the full. In particular, the interior minister, as well as the minister for justice, are doing an exceptional job in relation to the challenges we face," he said.
Montenegro insisted that we cannot "allow feelings of insecurity or serious criminal phenomena to grow" in order to safeguard "the individual freedoms of each citizen" and the economic asset that the country's security represents.
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