Montenegro did not feel intimidated, coerced or surrounded by police concentration

The PSD president said on Tuesday that he did not feel intimidated, coerced or surrounded by a concentration of police outside the Capitol cinema in Lisbon, where he debated Socialist Party Secretary General Pedro Nuno Santos on Monday.

“To be honest, personally, I did not feel at all intimidated, I did not feel forced at all, I did not feel surrounded at all, despite the fact that in the end the route of the demonstration was not the one that was previously agreed upon,” Luis Montenegro told reporters on the Avenida Almirante Flight to Lisbon.

The PSD President stated that he was not aware of the “advancement” of this demonstration, regardless of whether it was authorized for this location or not.

When asked if he believed there was conditioning, he replied: “For me there was none, none at all.”

Luis Montenegro spoke at the end of a street rally by the Democratic Alliance (AD), a coalition of PSD, CDS-PP and PPM, as part of the election campaign ahead of the legislative elections on March 10.

Asked whether it was acceptable in a democracy for security forces to hold an unauthorized protest at that location, in a kind of siege of an election debate, the PSD president thanked him for the question.

“I would like to take this opportunity to clarify: I did not feel surrounded. I do not know the procedures in which the demonstration was organized. “I did not feel surrounded or intimidated when entering or leaving the place where the debate was taking place,” he ruled.

Regarding the demands that caused protests by elements of the PSP and GNR, the PSD President added: “I already had the opportunity to be with the representative platform of trade unions and security force associations to tell them that I do not decide anything. in an election campaign in the face of public pressure, even if it is legal and justified, it can be exerted.”

“In fact, I was the first political leader who refused to take this position and said that I was open-minded and ready to begin the negotiation process in the early days of our government. “I also had the opportunity to say, and I repeat once again, protests and demonstrations are legal, in this case they are even justified, but they should not go beyond the limits that ensure peace and public safety,” he added.

When confronted with the fact that police were not allowed to assemble near the Capitol, unlike the demonstration that took place in Commerce Square, Luis Montenegro responded, “Well, I don’t know that. I was not involved or had any special knowledge of what was happening. “.

When asked whether this protest had gone beyond the bounds, the PSD president replied that in general terms, “anything that goes beyond the limits of respect for the law, compliance with the rules, especially on the part of professionals who act on behalf of all of us, the public authorities, should not happen.”

“And so I naturally don’t see myself going beyond those limits,” he stressed, reiterating, however, that he felt “nothing intimidated,” “nothing forced” and “nothing surrounded” by Monday night’s protest.

In turn, the President of the CDS-PP, Nuno Melo, who also participated in this street action AD (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM), considered that the protest in the Capitol did not respect “law and order,” which he deplored, noting, that this “does not negate the fair demands of police officers.”

Nuno Melo stressed that “at the moment the state still has a government, and this government is socialist,” accusing it of failing to provide “the basic functions of protecting its dignity.”

The PSP said it would inform the prosecutor’s office about the march and the concentration of police near the Capitol, since it was not reported, as required by law, to the competent authority, which in this case is the Lisbon City Council. , and was not authorized.

Hundreds of police officers marched to the Capitol, where a debate between PS and PSD leaders was taking place, after about 3,000 PSP and GNR members gathered in Praça do Comércio, next to the Ministry of Internal Administration.

While the demonstration at Praça do Comércio was organized by a platform uniting the PSP unions and the GNR associations, the protest near the Capitol was published on the social networks “Movimento Inop” and did not have the participation of a union platform.

Members of the PSP and GNR have been protesting for over a month now, demanding an allowance identical to that given to the judicial police.