Lisbon : Portugal’s political parties with seats in parliament have rejected the increased use of video surveillance for parliamentary buildings proposed by GNR and PSP police.
In spite of the brouhaha caused by the alleged break-in to unlocked offices of CHEGA leader André Ventura, MPs stress they prefer privacy and ‘freedom of movement’.
As Público has explained in an exclusive today, a working group comprising members of the PSP and the GNR police forces proposed, several months ago, an increase in indoor CCTV surveillance in the two buildings of the Assembly of the Republic. The initiative sought to improve MPs’ protections, but there were no takers.
Not even the installation of CCTV cameras near the lifts on each floor of the building was accepted, says Público, due to MPs’ concerns that the measure ‘could affect their privacy and freedom of movement’.
SIC Notícias has picked up on the news, saying that without the extra CCTV cameras “MPs can speak freely with other parliamentarians, journalists or even visitors to parliament without fear of being observed.
“These arguments were sufficient to prevent the installation of CCTV in the corridors of the main floor of the main building, around the plenary chamber and the offices allocated to the parliamentary groups.
“It is now impossible, for example, to ascertain who entered Ventura’s office on the day he reported that it had been vandalised,” SIC stresses.
“Without the recordings, the mystery can only be unravelled following an investigation by the PJ, which may or may not prove conclusive.”
