The parliamentary leader of the Left Bloc announced that he will call the Minister of Internal Affairs and the National Director of the PSP to provide explanations about the operations that target immigrants.
The PSP carried out a "special crime prevention operation" on Thursday in Rua do Benformoso and Martim Moniz, in Lisbon. According to images shared on social media and reports in the media, dozens of immigrant citizens were once again seen standing against the wall and being searched by uniformed and plainclothes officers. As in the previous "prevention" operation carried out a few weeks ago in the same location, the practical result wa
s mainly the media impact of these images, with the PSP announcing that it had made an arrest for possession of a drug and a prohibited weapon and seized almost a hundred counterfeit items.
The Left Bloc reacted late in the afternoon to this new operation targeting immigrants in central Lisbon, with its parliamentary leader Fabian Figueiredo stating that "the entire country witnessed degrading, revolting and indecent images today", with "dozens of people being pushed against the wall simply for being immigrants".
For the Bloc's part, "we will not stand by idly and serenely as the Government is promoting this escalation" and will therefore call the Minister of Internal Affairs and the National Director of the PSP to Parliament to provide explanations on whether these actions "will continue or will finally stop", but also whether "we will have police action that is in line with the principles of public safety and tranquility or whether the Government will continue to use the police to hunt for perception".
"The Government is adding fuel to the fire of racism and xenophobia", warned Fabian Figueiredo, concluding that "in a democratic state governed by the rule of law, the security forces are concerned with resolving crime problems and not with resolving the reasons that the PSD finds most useful for rising in the polls".