Lisbon Govt links strike to Communist ‘plot’

Press, 15 February 1982, Page 6

Lisbon Govt links strike to Communist ‘plot’

NZPA-Reuter Lisbon Portugal's Right-wing Government seems determined to blame :the proSoviet Communist Pdrty for an alleged attempt' to overthrowdhe country's fledgling democracy. The s 'lnterior Minister (Mr Angela Correia) made a special television broadcast at the week-end emphasising the flink between Friday’s Communist-organised gen-eral-strike and what the Government describes as a plot* to subvert Portugal’s democratic regime.

He said the Government now had the situation under control, and emphasised that the country was calm.

But he disclosed that one member of the security forces- had been killed and three .“wounded since the discovery of the alleged plot. Several arms caches had also been found and.an undisclosed number of arrests had been made, apart from three

people detained in Lisbon on Friday night, he said. The' Government had detected a series of "subversive actions aimed at overthrowing, the democratic State” since the start of the one-day strike on Friday. Mr Correia said. ‘ ",

Under this heading, he appeared to include unauthorised demonstrations by the strike’s organisers, the Communist-dominated C.G.T.P. — Intersiridical Labour Confederation, and the discovery of arms caches.

The most serious incident for the Government was the discovery of a car. full of arms and explosives. This which triggered off a nation-wide security swoop, during which a member of the para-military National Republican Guard was killed when a car crashed through a road block in northern Portugal. Mr Correia said two other members of the

force had been seriously injured in- similar circumstances, and a police officer had suffered a bullet wound. The C.G.T.P.-Intersindical leadership said there was no connection between the labour organisation and the incidents listed by the Government. denouncing “propaganda moves to make out that the strike was a kind of uprising.”

Mr Correia's speech was in line with the Government's policy of taking a hard line with the Communist Party on the internal front and with the party’s Soviet allies in foreign affairs. The Government has recently hinted that it plans more cuts in the number of Soviet diplomatic and commercial staff in Lisbon. The latest accusations against the Portuguese Communist Party. are likely to strengthen Right-wing arguments for tough action. The Socialist Opposition

leader. Mario Soares, a •former Prime Minister, has also said that the Portuguese Communist Party, had been given a main role in the Kremlin’s plans for destabilising the Iberian Peninsula to prevent Spain's entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The Government has also demanded a formal apology from the' Soviet Embassy in Lisbon for calling Mr Soares a lunatic in need of treatment because his comments. The embassy has already made a rare public apology for the statement. But the Soviet Ambassador (Mr Arnold Kalinin) had been told that his embassy was expected to comply with a Parliamentary motion demanding a formal apology, the Foreign Ministry said. The Portuguese Parliament on Friday overwhelmingly approved the motion, with only the Communist Party voting against.