Objection, PSP and silence: Fernando Negrão speaks of “leading problem”

Fernando Negrão, former Minister of Justice of the Social Democratic Party, considered, this Wednesday, that there is a “leading problem” and that clarifications are needed regarding what is happening in protests in the area of housing, particularly in relation to police charges.

Asked, in an interview with CNN Portugal, if it had been clarified about the actions of the Public Security Police (PSP) but demonstrations, the former of the Judicial Police (PJ) said: “No, I was not clear. And I assume a few have been cleared up. Except within the framework of the political parties, in which each one has a certain version and defends this version with nails and teeth – sometimes not well aware of its construction. There is still no clarification.”

Confronting the statements of the National Director of PSP made before the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, broke the silence, pointed out: “It’s another issue we don’t know about. Is the police hierarchy political? It's definitely not. Is it operational? Let's hope it's just the police doing it operationally. But from a political point of view, the decision is taken by the Minister [of the Internal Administration] and, in this case, as the Prime Minister himself said, the Prime Minister will also have taken, since he has followed this case thoroughly as he said yesterday in the Assembly of the Republic. So, say, clarify, explain what is going on.”

Fernando Negrão also insisted that it is necessary to speak and that it is not ‘only’ to work between four walls while the country waits to hear explanations: “It’s not being locked up in an office saying you’re working. The Prime Minister works both inside the cabinet and outside the cabinet.”

About the possibility that the orders about police action – and burden – have passed by the political leaders, Fernando Negrão argues that he has doubts “because they have not yet assumed that they did it”. And he added: “And we have no element that leads us to say that they made that decision. Now, we have indicted the likelihood that it was at least the Minister of the Interior, who once pronounced himself, even in a more or less aggressive way, regarding the behavior of the demonstrators.”

Asked what statements he was referring to, Fernando Negrão admitted the possibility of having been given a political order, referring to the statements made by Luís Neves on 20th, in which he said that “the camps ended” and that the “law was to be fulfilled”.

About the already fragile position of Luís Neves, and about the goal that may have existed here, he replied: “The goal is only to defend the position of the government and the PSD. And the position of the government and the PSD is that demonstrators are people who count for nothing, protesters cannot continue to do what they are doing because it undermines the image of the government and the image of the country – and therefore, ‘decisions must be taken’.”

Pointing out that “it would go further”, Fernando Negrão spoke of what is “the main document” that was on the table these days: “What we saw over ten days ago was the discussion about protesters, policemen and what was happening every day. Was there any intention to hide the discussion about the State Budget? [...] Since there is no clarification, all these questions are likely to arise.”

As for the President of the Republic, António José Seguro, the former PSD minister said that his speech came “late and late” and his statement was not “very strong or vehement to appeal or even impose on the Government to start informing the citizens of what is happening and to look at the demonstrations in another way”. And he defended: “The President of the Republic is currently in a position to conduct this process. Let us wait, because we do nothing but wait [...]. We have a leadership problem here.”