A spokesman for Livre warned this Wednesday of the danger of possible political exploitation of the spontaneous police protest near the Capitol in Lisbon by those who “want to seize power and never let it go.”
“The security forces may be opening the door to political exploitation by those who are really only interested in the rules of democracy in order to seize power and never let it go,” Rui Tavares said after a meeting with representatives of the Independent Union of Doctors.
According to the leader of Livre por Lisboa, such use is already being used in other countries, with the result that “those who promise order create chaos, and those who promise cleanliness end up desecrating institutions.”
Analyzing the spontaneous concentration of police near the Capitol, where the election debate between the leaders of the PS and the PSD took place, Rui Tavares said that “everyone must respect the fundamentals of the rule of law,” but left a warning.
“We all need to be very careful in our protests. The ends do not justify the means, and the means must take into account the almost sacred aspects of democracy, such as debate and elections.”
On Monday, after some 3,000 PSP and GNR members gathered in Lisbon’s Praça do Comércio, many of them headed to the Capitol, where the election debate between Pedro Nuno Santos and Luis Montenegro was taking place, in a spontaneous march that was not authorized.
Meanwhile, the PSP national director has ordered an internal investigation into the circumstances of the police protest at the Capitol, taking into account the “possible involvement of PSP police officers in an unregistered protest.”