PSP and GNR Officers March From Largo do Carmo to São Bento at 17:30 Today, 28 Months After a 2024 Pay Deal They Say Is Still Unmet
The two largest PSP and GNR bodies hold a national demonstration in Lisbon this evening, demanding new pay scales, career reviews and the rest of the 2024 agreement. The Government points to a risk supplement now worth 400 euros a month and talks due in November.
Public Security Police (PSP) officers and members of the National Republican Guard (GNR) march through central Lisbon this evening, Thursday 29 October, demanding higher pay, career reviews and better conditions. The national demonstration starts at 17:30 in Largo do Carmo, in the Chiado, and ends outside the Prime Minister's official residence at São Bento, Lusa reported via RTP.
It is organised by the Association of Police Professionals (ASPP/PSP), the largest PSP union, and the Association of Guard Professionals (APG/GNR). It closes a cycle of protests held since September in cities from Porto to Faro, Funchal and Ponta Delgada. It is not a strike: PSP officers may not strike.
What the officers want
Both bodies say the Government has not delivered the rest of the agreement it signed with the police unions and GNR associations in July 2024. That deal raised the fixed part of the risk supplement (suplemento por serviço e risco, a monthly allowance on top of base pay) in three steps, from 100 to 400 euros a month by 2026, according to the Ministry of Internal Administration (MAI). The unions say the review of pay scales, supplements and careers that was meant to follow has not happened.
In its call to the march, the APG lists three demands: an immediate update of the pay scales, compliance with the 2024 agreement, and a change in the law on cuts of 30 to 40 percent to retirement pensions. On the eve of the protest, the APG said 28 months have passed without the deal being honoured, and that guards lose more than 200 euros a month because their pay statute is out of date. A new guard earns a base salary of 1,074 euros, the APG says.
The ASPP president, Paulo Santos, told Lusa that the Government had so far brought "ideas, experiences and nothing in the way of proposals". The APG president, César Nogueira, said the march ends at São Bento because the Interior Minister, Luís Neves, lacks the political weight to move the process.
The Government's position
The MAI says the 2024 deal was "the largest ever increase" for the security forces, and that the other supplements, frozen for 16 years, rose by 2.15 percent, while the rate for serviços remunerados (policing paid for by event organisers and businesses) went up 15 percent in February. In September it offered a new supplement of 160 euros a month, backdated to July, rising to 230 euros in 2027, for PSP and GNR officers on border control. The ministry says structural problems "are not solved in a few months".
Technical meetings continue at the Ministry of Finance, and a meeting with the Interior Minister is planned for November. In September the APG said it had no firm guarantee that a new deal would apply from 1 January 2027.
Housing, and the timing
Asked about the timing, after police cleared the housing protest camps in Lisbon and Porto, Paulo Santos said "an assessment was made" but the date was already set. He called housing "very worrying" and a problem that also affects police officers, adding: "We are sensitive to and stand with the fight for housing. But we do not mix the issues." Lisbon plans around 90 homes for posted nurses, teachers and police.
What it means for you
If you live in or travel between the Chiado and São Bento this evening, expect slow or diverted traffic and buses, and crowds on foot, from about 17:30. No detailed route had been published by Thursday morning. The cycle began with a march in Porto in September.
