Minister of Internal Affairs agrees with military service as an alternative sentence – Politics

• Photo: MANUEL DE ALMEIDA/LUSA

Margarida Blasco

The Minister of Internal Administration agreed this Monday that military service could be an alternative for young people who commit “petty crimes”, as defended by the Minister of Defense.

Speaking to journalists, at the end of the closing seminar of the Project “Improving prevention, assistance, protection and (re)integration systems for victims of sexual exploitation”, Margarida Blasco said that the Minister of Defense, Nuno Melo, “obviously spoke on behalf of the entire Government”.

“What we have to admit is that all solutions are the Government’s intention to implement them, adapting them to the current contexts which, as you know, are very demanding”, said the minister.

The minister’s statement comes after Nuno Melo defended, at Universidade Europa, a PSD political training initiative, that military service could be an alternative for young people who commit petty crimes instead of being placed in institutions that, “in the main In most cases, they only function as a school of crime for life”, at the same time that he stated that there were no political conditions to re-impose compulsory military service.

Also present at the ceremony, which took place at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the president of the Bar Association said she was not analyzing the matter, but made it clear that “compulsory military service makes no sense whatsoever”.

Even so, Fernanda de Almeida Pinheiro admitted that “it could be recommended (…) as a substitute penalty, instead of paying a pecuniary penalty, which people do not always have, they choose to do public service”.

“And military service can be a public service that is provided, if necessary, when properly framed, because I don’t even know if we are properly qualified to receive this type of services”, defended the president.

Questioned by journalists about data from the 2023 Annual Internal Security Report (RASI), which, according to the weekly Expresso, points to an increase in the crime of human trafficking and the growing violence of criminal networks, the Minister of Internal Administration highlighted that the document is “not yet closed”.

“The RASI is still being finalized, it will still be studied and approved by the Superior Council for Internal Security”, said Margarida Belasco, highlighting that she will analyze the RASI data before “revising strategic guidelines”.

He admitted, however, that the “Government is concerned and will seek to implement all solutions so that crime can be reduced and combated.”