Currencies: Lisbon will have a specific security plan

Lisbon City Council and the Ministry of Internal Affairs will outline a specific security plan for the city, with no date yet set for its implementation, the mayor said on Tuesday.

Carlos Moedas was speaking to journalists after a meeting in Lisbon with the Minister of Internal Affairs, Maria Lúcia Amaral, a meeting that had been requested on June 9 “as a matter of urgency” to discuss “responses to the security problems that the city faces”.

“It was an excellent meeting, I think I felt a dynamic in the Ministry of Internal Affairs that I had not felt for a long time, but above all I felt a minister with a vision for what is specific to the city of Lisbon ”, began by saying the social democrat.

According to the mayor, “there is recognition, but above all there is a vision and a plan” for the city, and it was agreed with the minister to look at the situation in Lisbon in relation to the number of necessary elements of the PSP and Municipal Police.

“We are going to establish a specific action plan for Lisbon and I think it is very important, it shows the minister's vision and also shows recognition of the situation in Lisbon”, he reiterated.

Carlos Moedas recalled that Lisbon, the country's capital, “has many specificities that are not like other cities”, especially because there are 570 thousand inhabitants and “there are more than a million people who enter and leave every day”.

The mayor, elected by the Novos Tempos coalition, added that there were no dates for this strategy , recalling that the idea “was launched here”, and thanked Maria de Lúcia Amaral, “because it is a necessary plan for Lisbon”.

“Whether in terms of numbers of PSP, Municipal Police, joint actions, mixed patrols, night guards, the Municipal Police’s capabilities here to make arrests – all of this will be part of this approach”, he exemplified.

Carlos Moedas, who has not yet confirmed his candidacy for the presidency of the executive in the local elections of October 12, also said he is available to “assume costs, if necessary”, even if he is paid.

“I told the minister that she could count on me for the work of a mayor, which is to be on the streets and also have that knowledge of the streets. She is the sovereign minister in relation to security in the country, but I was really pleased that there was an understanding about what Lisbon is today, and Lisbon has this sense, of this city that is open, but it has to be safe, and that is very important for all of us”, he stressed.

The meeting also addressed the issue of regulations for night guards, an idea launched by Lisbon City Council that consists of having 56 night guards in the city, in order to guarantee “night-time security for many people”. The executive will move forward with the “regulation and training” of those who will perform the role.

that the number of necessary elements from the PSP and Municipal Police will be looked at.