At a hearing in the National Defence committee, in parliament, on the participation of the Navy in combating the pandemic, Admiral Mendes Calado stated that the Navy is in contact with the municipalities to prepare a “peculiar” bathing year due to the epidemic outbreak.
The Maritime Police will favour "actions of authority and less of prevention and security", which should remain with the Marines who will be called to help, he added.
Normally, he said, 80 Marines are called, but this year there will be a reinforcement of 150 soldiers.
Marines will be "previously prepared with rescue capabilities," he said, guaranteeing, on the other hand, that they will not exercise police functions.
"There will be no Marines to exercise the function of police coercion", said, in response to questions from deputies Paulo Moniz (PSD), Maria da Luz Rosinha (PS) and João Vasconcelos (BE).
In the estimates of the head of the Navy, there will be about 500 elements of the Maritime Police to protect the bathing year during the summer.
Due to the pandemic, it was admitted by the Government that people's access to the beaches must have restrictions or limitations.
Admiral Mendes Calado defended a "pedagogy campaign" for "self-disciplined people" to "protect themselves".
Welcome to the police state. Governments don’t know what to do about Covid-19, but they’ll lock us down before admitting it.
By Fred Doe from Algarve on 29 Apr 2020, 08:58
To Fred Doe, just be grateful the government are looking after us. No-one has had to deal with anything like this before. They are doing the best they can under the circumstances.
By P. Rebeiro from Lisbon on 29 Apr 2020, 14:05
I totally agree with P Ribeiro above. Everyone is doing the best they can in a situation which has never presented itself before. Obviously safety comes first and that it what they are doing. The police, the maritime and all the services are out there trying to protect us. The government know we need to get back to normal as soon as possible and are trying to do this both safely and efficiently. Anyone who cannot see this has their head up their own backside - it is up to us to behave carefully and adhere to some rules during these trying times.
By Jo from Algarve on 29 Apr 2020, 20:22