Compulsory military service? “I don’t think there is any consensus”

ANDn a press conference at the national headquarters of BE, in Lisbon, at the end of a meeting with the League of Portuguese Firefighters (LBP), Mariana Mortágua was asked about a possible return from mandatory military service, after the chiefs of the Navy’s General Staff and the Army have asked that this possibility be reconsidered.

“BE rules out this possibility, in fact it was ruled out in Portugal a few years ago and I think there is no consensus for it to return”, he replied.

The BE leader stressed that the issue was addressed during the campaign and it did not appear to her “that there is, on the part of most parties, any desire to reinstitute compulsory military service in Portugal”.

Regarding her meeting with the LBP, Mariana Mortágua considered that there are a set of firefighters’ demands that “have been dragged out”, highlighting that “the most controversial case, which was resolved recently, concerns payment for work of medical emergencies and the use of ambulances when transporting patients”.

However, the BE leader highlighted that “other issues persist”, which also correspond to the party’s commitments in this legislature, in particular with regard to “firefighter careers”.

“Part of this service is provided by volunteers, another part is no longer provided by volunteers and it is good that this is the case, because they are professional firefighters. Despite this, there is no career path, which makes it very difficult to attract new people to this profession” , he highlighted, adding that there is a “deficit in financing firefighters”, which puts the sustainability of the profession at risk.

In turn, LBP vice-president Eduardo Correia said that the association initiated a round of meetings with BE with all political parties, which aim to convey the “major concerns” of Portuguese firefighters.

Eduardo Correia argued that the biggest concern “is the issue of firefighters’ careers”, noting that there are several professional categories that have been demanding better career conditions, and firefighters do not do so because “there simply is no career”.

The vice-president of LBP argued that it is necessary to create a career in firefighters to “stabilize those that exist and find a way to not let them escape to other entities”, but also to attract more people to the sector.

Eduardo Correia warned that firefighters do not have the weapons that the GNR, PSP, INEM and ICNF “have to offer a career”, so it is important not to let professionals who want to pursue this profession not “escape to other entities”.

When asked if he had any example of the type of career that firefighters would like to have, Eduardo Correia gave the example of the pre-hospital career at INEM or forestry sappers at ICNF.

This Friday, in an article in Expresso, the Chief of Staff of the Navy, Henrique Gouveia e Melo, stated that it may be necessary to “rethink compulsory military service, or another more appropriate variant”, in order to “balance the expenditure/results ratio” and “generate greater availability of the population for Defense”.

This position was also shared by the Chief of Staff of the Army, Eduardo Ferrão, who, in statements to Expresso, argued that “a reintroduction of compulsory military service is justified to be studied and evaluated from various perspectives”.

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