The sides agreed this Friday on the importance of investing in the armed forces, but the opposition asked the government for more, warning that the recent controversy in the navy is a reflection of the army’s lack of conditions.
In the parliamentary debate on Portugal’s participation in Permanent Structured Cooperation – attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, João Gomes Cravinho, and the Minister of National Defense, Helena Carreiras – the PS defended that the conflict in Ukraine “warned the importance of European security instruments and policies”.
Deputy Maria da Luz Rosinha stressed the “need to continue improving and investing in the Common Security and Defense Policy and its instruments, both internally and in unilateral, multilateral cooperation with NATO”, a “fundamental partner”.
“From 2014 to 2021, Portugal recorded an increase in defense expenditure of approximately 29.2%, which could reach 14% this year, taking into account the investments foreseen in the law on military programming”he stressed.
For PSD, deputy Carlos Eduardo Reis defended the importance of Portugal’s participation in permanent structured cooperation, but he left several messages to the executive, defending that “the degradation of the state today affects the sovereignty of the state”.
“Let us not consider difficult situations within the Army, Navy or Air Force as mere episodes, when they were and are symptomatic of a deep and protracted crisis in Defense. Let’s not put the men and women who serve Portugal in an unsolvable dilemma between their duty and their safety, usually because of a lack of investment.”he thought, referring to the recent controversy involving 13 soldiers who refused to board a mission on the ship Mondego, due to lack of security conditions.
In a harsh speech, the Social Democrat asked the government not to wait to respond “to the concerns and needs of the Defense Department” in the same time “it took to respond to the housing crisis” or to the “urgencies of the National Health Service”. .
“The crisis that the armed forces are going through does not, for obvious reasons, have the strength of the street, of demonstrations or protests, but it is no less worthy of political initiative, especially since the crisis that the armed forces are going through is as old as the othersinsisted.
Deputy Bernardo Blanco, from the Liberal Initiative, defended that with the Russian invasion of Ukraine “the EU’s common foreign and security policy has gained greater preponderance” and that there is a “strengthening of European cooperation in this field”, that Portugal also called .
“This is yet another cause for concern in view of the most recent national events we are witnessing regarding the state of the few assets of our armed forces, many of which are out of action.”he said.
For Chega, Deputy Bruno Nunes accused the government of “disrespecting the career and human resources at the service of the armed forces and in defense of the nation” and Diogo Pacheco de Amorim questioned whether the executive remains committed opposing a common army European – with João Gomes Cravinho later replying that the CEP “should not be the forerunner of a single European army”.
“We cannot regard ourselves as producers of international security and give what we do not have, when for many years we have witnessed a continuous decline in the human and material resources of our armed forces”defended João Dias, deputy of the PCP.
Referring directly to the case of the NRP Mondego, Joana Mortágua, from BE, asked the defense minister whether the description of the ship’s insurgent army is true and whether the official would board a ship with those conditions, warning that “courage is not suppression”.
Finally, the Minister of Foreign Affairs João Gomes Cravinho considered that “the original objectives of the CEP are fully justified” and that national participation “constitutes an important contribution to the European collective effort”.
Defense Minister Helena Carreiras showed deputies two graphs, one of which illustrated “the growth of investment in defense”, underlining Thursday’s approval by the Council of Ministers of the proposals for the military infrastructure law and the law on military programming.
The official emphasized that “a substantial portion, more than 40%” of the military programming law is devoted to the maintenance, support and modernization of assets, to “seek to recover from the shortfalls”.
Helena Carreiras also guaranteed that “LPM has no fascinations and never has”.
Source: DN
