“We want to know why a chapter on far-right threats was excluded from the RASI between its preliminary and final version, and it is the prime minister who needs to answer,” stated BE coordinator Mariana Mortágua at a press conference held at the party’s national headquarters in Lisbon.
Mortágua highlighted that “the amputated chapter” of the RASI—titled “extremisms and hybrid threats,” which was included in the preliminary version of the report and removed from the final version—mentions “far-right influencers and their promotion of violence against women.”
“We find it particularly important as there is much discussion surrounding a specific case of the rape of a young woman in Loures, which was shared on social media and is known to have involved precisely such influence from far-right figures promoting this kind of behavior, and macho and sexual violence and violence against women,” she criticized.
Mariana Mortágua stressed that if the Government does not explain the disappearance of this chapter from the final version of the document, it leaves room for interpretation and “all interpretations are the worst possible.”
“Does the Government downplay the threats from the far-right? Do the far-right threats not fit the narrative the Government wants to create based on perceptions of what is and isn’t insecurity?” she questioned.
In addition to this “amputated” chapter, BE also seeks explanations from Luís Montenegro regarding a paragraph included in the final version of the RASI.
On page 31, under the chapter dedicated to the “Analysis of the national situation,” the RASI mentions that “at the economic level, the presence of foreign operators and suppliers considered risky, in critical infrastructures and strategic national sectors, warranted a preventive evaluation of threats to internal security, also considering, in this context, the safeguarding of national economic security.”
“This means that the PSD privatized energy to foreign companies, including Chinese state companies. These infrastructures are critical to national sovereignty and economic security, to such an extent that they are being evaluated in the internal security report. It is a concerning, serious paragraph that deserves discussion,” she argued.
When questioned about the fact that the paragraph does not directly mention Chinese companies, Mortágua admitted that other entities might also be concerned, such as the French multinational Vinci, which owns ANA – Airports, but the party refers to energy companies “because they are a critical infrastructure today and have already been subject, indeed, to international criticism because they are in the hands of another state.”
Mariana Mortágua considered that the Government “must explain what kind of risk assessment this is.”
“At a time when Defense is being discussed, and we are entering an absurd arms race, being told we are going to be attacked and invaded through Cais do Sodré, these are the real threats to security, and no one wants to discuss them,” she criticized.
The Blocist challenged the head of the executive to clarify these issues either in parliament, in a debate already requested by BE with the presence of the Government, or beforehand, through public statements.
