The national Judicial Police (PJ) have announced stronger measures to tackle the increasing problem of hate speech and hate crime in Portugal.
Much of the hate is racist, religious or misogynistic directed at immigrants in this country.
Hate speech is verbal or written expressions that attack or insult individuals or groups, while hate crimes are of a similar but more offensive nature. They are both of growing concern not only to the legal authorities, but to the wider public.
Public concerns include the gap between the number of prosecutions and the high number of unreported hate crimes. Although speech offences are punishable with up to five years imprisonment, official data remains unclear. The number of speech and crime offences are believed to have increased significantly over the past five years.
The latest initiatives will involve the close coordination of different law enforcement sectors and improve victim support.
The PJ is closely aligned with an EU-funded anti-hate crime project, as well as civil society, academic and various other organisations working to greatly quash hatred.
Portugal does not yet have a unified hate crime law but it includes it in existing legislation against violence.
The ruling centre-right democratic alliance in the Portuguese Parliament has introduced stricter control over immigration.
The strongest advocate for greater anti-immigrant action is the right-wing Chega (Enough) party that is enjoying significantly rising public support. Chega is particularly opposed to Portugal’s increasing thousands of resident Romanies (gypsies). The backlash seems to extend to many other immigrant ethnic groups, including those from Brazil, former Portuguese colonies in Africa, Ukraine, EU countries such as Poland and France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Chega’s irritation is that all sorts of immigrants are renting or buying homes while local Portuguese residents face the unresolved housing crisis. Many foreigners are able to depend on greater financial resources, while locals battle on with latest inflation rates of between 2.4% to 2.8%. Even low-income foreign workers are disliked because they take jobs from local Portuguese workers.
One of the most significant movements of people has included the return of many Portuguese residents from the United States, who feel unwanted or worse, by supporters of Donald Trump’s administration.
Written by Len Port - Photo courtesy of Depositphotos.com
