Lisbon, May 27, 2026 (Lusa) - The Portuguese prime minister on Wednesday once again suggested that the new border control system at airports might be suspended, at least during “critical times”, to ensure that the Portuguese economy “is not penalised”.
“We do not want to reach the point of suspending procedures, but if we have to do so, particularly at critical times, under the rules that our European commitments also allow, we will do so until this whole mechanism is functioning absolutely normally,” said Luís Montenegro during the fortnightly debate in parliament.
In response to questions from the PSD (Social Democratic Party) parliamentary leader, he also addressed the controversy surrounding the appointment of the head of SIRESP (Portugal's Security and Emergency Communication Networks), which led to the resignation of the assistant Secretary-General for the interior, António Pombeiro, but shifted the blame for the malfunctioning of emergency communications to the past.
"The focus here is on correcting what did not work in the past, doing so with the greatest possible efficiency, robustness and thoroughness," he said, reiterating interior minister Luís Neves's readiness to provide explanations to parliament.
He noted that the government had committed to setting up “a technical, multi-sectoral working group tasked with conducting a study that could pave the way for a decision providing predictability, sustainability and consistency to the response of this communications system”.
“We can then get distracted by many issues; I am not saying that they cannot be important, and the government is fully open to parliamentary scrutiny, but there is one thing we must not lose sight of: the focus here is on correcting what did not work in the past,” he said.
Regarding the new European border control system, which has increased waiting times at air borders, particularly at Lisbon airport, he also attributed responsibility for the current difficulties to the previous PS (Socialist Party) government, including the current party leader, José Luís Carneiro, for the abolition of the Foreigners and Borders Service.
"We are not satisfied with the level of response the system has provided, particularly when there are peaks in the number of people arriving at airports, and especially at Lisbon airport," he said, pointing out similar problems at other European airports.
He reiterated the announcement that, by the end of June, over 300 police officers will be deployed to assist with this process and assured that the government is “working to ensure that the entire control mechanism is in place to guarantee that these new rules do not compromise the operation”.
"Let me make this absolutely clear: if there is a need to suspend any procedure to ensure that we have security regarding the entry of people, and that our economy is not penalised, either in terms of reputation or in practical terms, we are not ruling anything out at this stage," he said.
SMA/MYAL // AYLS
Lusa
