PS questions about aptitude tables for military suspended 3 years ago

ANDm causa is a ordinance, approved in 2023 by the then Minister of Defense of the PS Government, Helena Careers, who established the new “General Tables of Fitness and Capacity” to join the Armed Forces. These new tables have lowered the minimum height for general admission to 1.54 metres for men and women and several chronic diseases are no longer the cause of automatic exclusion of candidates.

Although the ordinance was approved, the text refers to the entry into force of a “order of the Minister of National Defense, on a proposal from the chiefs of Staff of the branches”, a text that did not come to be published, according to the newspaper Público last week.

“ Three years after the publication of the order, the order was never issued. It was not immediately by the previous government, since after fifteen days of its publication, the Prime Minister resigned and an electoral process was opened. From the current tutelage, there are no developments,” the socialist bench argues in the question addressed to the Government and headed by the party coordinator in the Defense Committee, Luís Dias.

The PS points out that “a diploma that was intended to extend the recruitment universe of the Armed Forces in a context of widely recognised recruitment difficulties” is at issue and has led to “serious technical work, validated by a committee of military health experts”.

The socialists also warn that the ordinance provided for a review every five years, three of which have already taken place, “without apparently its practical application being ensured”.

“It is important to clarify, therefore, that criteria are effectively in force in the branches and why the current Minister of National Defense has not yet proceeded to publish the missing order”, they argue.

In this context, the PS bench wants to know if Minister Nuno Melo confirms “the absence of the order” and, in case of affirmative response, why it has not yet been signed despite three years.

Members of the PS want to know what is currently “the regime applicable to candidates for entry into the Armed Forces” and “what admission criteria are effectively being applied by the three branches of the Armed Forces and the Maritime Police on their recruitment and selection processes on this date.”.

“ Although each branch has its specifics, does the Government recognize that there is currently an application of different regimes (in the case of ordinances) between branches, and that this generates a situation of unequal treatment between candidates?", asks the PS.

The Socialist bench wants to know what measures the PSD/CDS-PP executive is adopting “to ensure that candidates are not harmed by the current regulatory misdefinition”, and if a review of the ordinance is being prepared.

The Lusa agency also questioned the Ministry of National Defense on the subject, and the guardianship replied that “it will be timely given public notice of this process”, without further information so far.