A question that arises and that the government does not know, or does not seem to know how to answer.
From the beginning of the negotiation process on the police condition supplement, MAI was informed of the importance of ensuring maximum sensitivity in the context in which this process was based.
Not because the specific and objective issue of the police condition supplement, as being the only problem of the security forces, but because it has a different meaning, since the framework in which emerged, it revealed the culmination of years and years of devaluation and irresponsibility on the part of governments and also the glaring demotivation and saturation of security forces professionals.
Naturally, we all realize that there should be a concern about remuneration tables, in the same way, we know that issues such as the restructuring of other supplements and the resolution of many other problems, such as respect for pre-retirement, have long been unresolved.
That’s not the issue, the issue is another, let’s see, the consecration of a mission supplement to PJ professionals and others who don’t even have the condition. police status, leaving out PSP and GNR professionals in the dignification and valorization of their police status supplement, those who have been faced with the lack of dignity in their careers, placing them on a level of inferiority, which cannot be allowed for all the reasons that I believe the Portuguese recognize, naturally put the discussion in other terms and This was evidently the trigger for anger.
They are encompassed and expanded missions, they are increasingly demanding, complex and risky occurrences, they are increasingly permanent availability, they are cuts in days off and vacations for more and different reasons, they are private policing using public service, it is a special career remuneration table, but treated as general, there are supplements to be restructured since 2009, there are weak working conditions, it is fatigue, burnout, wear and tear, It’s a sickening failure to comply with pre-retirement, it’s recognitions, promises and announcements that sound like constant populism and provocation.
In the same sense, what we are talking about are institutions without operational capacity, policing and results based on cuts in police rights, competitions and courses without candidates, maps and operational support results doubtful, they are police stations without police, they are police without vehicles, they are services without means, they are patchworks, they are problems and problems, without anyone realizing that they exist and they are there.
These two nuances, a police that is linked to the machines and that no one intends to disconnect, much less save, and a situation of glaring demotivation that extends to all professionals, in their various dimensions, they are, or should be, intrinsically linked to the ongoing negotiation process, but they are not.
When it is stated that there is no longer budgetary availability, when other solutions are hurriedly and opportunistically invoked to resolve the impasse, when one resorts to the argument that the previous government was the cause of the problem, when he communicates in a lax manner and especially, when he “holds the police to the wires” with the final thrust of, “it’s either this or it’s nothing”, after such intense months of struggle, constant, transversal and sharp, forgive me, but once again, it means not understanding anything that has happened, is happening and will happen.
Having said that, the matter is extremely sensitive for, on the one hand, to be treated in an irresponsible and populist manner by some, but on the other hand, to be treated in a frivolous and deaf manner by others, but one thing seems clear, The onus of preserving stability in the security forces cannot fall on the legitimate representatives of the police, after the warnings, signs, and serious and constructive contributions left, but this burden will be the responsibility of the government power. which, by not understanding the context, is sponsoring chaos, disorder and even more serious, the bankruptcy of the FS.
And so, they will not be able to resort once again to the practices of the past, because the past is already there, and today, for better or for worse, police officers are not just those excellent professionals that His Holiness, political officials and others praise, during the infamous specific or populist recognitions, these professionals are also a demonstration of the non-acceptance of past treatments, that is, they are It’s bad, but do it and keep quiet.
Do we still have time to solve the police’s problems? I would say, we still have time to save “the Security Forces”.
