Unions point to challenging mission for new PSP and GNR officials

The most representative trade unions of the PSP and the PPP today emphasized the difficult mission that the new leaders of the two security forces face and reaffirmed the need to improve the living conditions of their professionals.

Speaking to reporters after the new GNA commander, Lt. Gen. Rui Ribeiro Veloso, and the national director of the PSP, Chief Superintendent Barros Correia, took office in the Ministry of Finance in Lisbon, the President of the Syndical Police Association Professionals (ASPP-PSP) expressed his wishes for success, but also asked not to embellish the current situation of the police.

“She has a difficult task ahead of her. The PSP is going through very difficult and difficult times. We are all aware of the unattractiveness and operational limitations in terms of funding, etc. The figure and profile of the director is important, but it is not decisive in what the future mission of the national direction of the PSP will be,” said Paulo Santos.

It is also necessary for the leader of the ASPP-PSP that the Ministry of the Interior has “the necessary investments and resources” in the sense that the national leadership of the Public Security Police (PSP) does not continue “in this paradigm of reduced vacations and days off so that the PSP can work.”

The President of the Association of Professionals of the Guard (APG-GNR), Cesar Nogueira, was delighted to see for the first time a security force officer who had reached the top of the National Republican Guard (GNR) hierarchy and guaranteed a union to help the new Commander-in-Chief find solutions. However, he called for a “change in policy”, giving priority to raising the wages of its elements.

“The budget needs to be improved from the very beginning. Big money is needed, which has not been invested for years. We are not going to demand everything at once, but for them to start taking a step … There is no doubt that, patting on the back, we are all tired,” stressed the trade union leader in a message addressed to the government.

The president of the Observatory on Security, Organized Crime and Terrorism (OSCOT), Jorge Baquelar Gouveia, also attended the swearing-in of the new PSP and GNR officials and called the attractiveness of the security forces one of the main challenges for the future. .

“Now there is a serious problem with the recruitment of security forces. Demand for police careers has declined and this should be of concern to security forces and those in charge,” he noted, also listing the issues raised by emigration and youth violence in operational terms.

The constitutionalist also confirmed the existence of “equipment problems and new security prospects” that require “closer cooperation” with intelligence agencies: “Often some corsets and certain chapels still exist.”

Lieutenant General Rui Veloso, 53, was appointed to his current post on August 16, 2023, and will become the first general commander of the PPR from the Guard itself, which has hitherto been commanded by army generals.

Chief Superintendent Barros Correia, 58, has served as Secretary General of PSP Social Services since 2018, having been Chairman of the European Union Police Cooperation Group during the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Commander of the Azores and Liaison Officer of the Ministry of the Interior at the Portuguese Embassy in the Democratic Republic Sao Tome and Principe.