The Secretary of State for the Interior, Isabel Oneto, defended this Wednesday that in the fight against drug trafficking it is necessary to cooperate with local authorities and put an end to degraded neighborhoods that encourage deviant behavior.
“We cannot continue to have degraded neighborhoods as they are now. We must work to put an end to areas that, by their very nature, encourage deviant behavior, in addition to the crime problem,” said Isabel Oneto, who replaced the Minister of Justice today. Internal governance in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees.
During the hearing, whose debate focused on the lack of operational capacity of the PSP in the city of Porto, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, following a request from the PSD, said that it was necessary to “look with serenity” to homeland security data.
“If we say that Porto is a powder keg, we generate uncertainty because it does not correspond to the data we have,” he said, highlighting that last year there was an increase of 185 employees at the Porto PSP and that the training , which is still ongoing, will allow “several district and metropolitan commands to be strengthened.”
Regarding drug trafficking and consumption, the Secretary of State emphasized that, despite being present on Portuguese streets, this is also a European phenomenon that has “increased significantly” following the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The fight is being waged by suppressing the drug trade, but on the consumption side not by police repression,” he noted, defending the need for coordinated responses between the guardianship and local authorities.
In this matter, Isabel Oneto dhe also highlighted “structural issues that are decades old”, such as built space, which, he argued, should be worked on together with local authorities, or phenomena such as the ‘White Night’ [no Porto] in which he deemed it necessary to take action to prevent its recurrence.
Isabel Oneto denied that the Ministry of the Interior (MAI) has “done nothing” to strengthen and improve the infrastructure and resources for the PSP and said that a competition is underway for the purchase of new vehicles and that a procedure will be are started for the repair of others.
For the PSD, the party that requested the hearing, deputy Mónica Quintela criticized the lack of performance of the local police and security forces in the city of Porto, defending the improvement of working conditions, but also the coordination between the different ministries to to perform an action. “integrated strategy” to solve the problem of drug addiction.
In answer, Socialist deputy Paulo Araújo Correia criticized the PSD’s “lack of sense of state” and accused the party of discussing the issue “based on ‘guesswork’.” The Socialist also highlighted that crime in Porto has decreased by 13% compared to 2019 and argued that the data presented by the PSD “paints the city very poorly”.
For Chega, deputy Pedro Pinto criticized “the gymnastics” of the data presented by the Socialists, arguing that crime increased between 2022 and 2023 and that it was necessary to solve “the obvious problem” that exists in Porto.
The deputy of the Liberal Initiative, Patrícia Gil Vaz, also criticized successive socialist governments for not responding to the phenomenon of drug trafficking, nor to the insecurity that reigns on the streets of Porto at night.
Deputy Alma Rivera of the PCP argued that Porto needs more resources than are currently available to respond to the problems of nightlife and drug trafficking, accusing the government of presenting “false solutions”.
For BE, deputy Pedro Filipe Soares said it was necessary to guarantee that Porto “is a safe destination and place to live”, something that, in his opinion, is “apparently not guaranteed by the government”.
Livre’s sole deputy, Rui Tavares, also highlighted the impact felt in urban areas related to “post-pandemic problems, changes in drug trafficking and consumption patterns and the pressure of tourists”.
Source: DN
