Lisbon, 21 Nov 2019 (Lusa) – Home Affairs Minister Eduardo Cabrita today highlighted “responsible unionism” and the “high democratic maturity” of the demonstration that today brought together over 13,000 PSP and GNR military agents in Lisbon .

In a statement at the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Lisbon, after the protest was over, Eduardo Cabrita said that “the Government values ​​social dialogue.”

The official assured that he will continue the dialogue already started with the representative associations of the PSP and the GNR, in what he called the program of social dialogue and action for the “valorisation” of the security forces. He did not comment on the possibility admitted today by the professionals for a new demonstration for January 21st.

According to the minister, this program “integrates matters that are expressly foreseen in the Government’s program, namely a multi-annual program of recruitment to the security forces that allows them to be rejuvenated and to regain an operational capacity that the level of recruitment of the last two years has allowed.

Eduardo Cabrita spoke of “taking stock of the experience of the security forces programming law, which will allow us to start working on the new programming law for the period after 2021”.

He also said that priority will be given to a health and safety at work, which will give these professionals a regime that is appropriate to their type of specific safety safeguard duties for the Portuguese.

The minister added that an analysis of the remuneration regime will be made, considering the framework of supplements, allowances and additional remuneration that are received by the two security forces so that it can be coherent to adopt it in the future.

Eduardo Cabrita pointed out that PSP also assured today the security conditions in the framework of its functions to safeguard the right of demonstration and the right of movement and conveyed a message of recognition to the professionals who guaranteed it in the city of Lisbon..

Protesters from the security forces began at about 1 pm at the Marquis de Pombal, from where a parade to the parliament took place, where around 13,000 protesters, according to the organization, were guarded by a strong police force.

The peaceful demonstration was still marked by several symbolic and peaceful acts, and the threat of a new protest was threatened if the government failed to meet its demands.