Digital war attacks the foundations of democratic regimes

"The war of today is a technological war, a digital war, a war of manipulation, a war that many call hybrid, a war that attacks the foundations of democratic regimes, that attacks the actual running of democracies", claimed Prime Minister Luís Montenegro at the opening of the Land Defence Industry Days) at Serra do Pilar Barracks in Vila Nova de Gaia.

Luís Montenegro said that "our very own political and social structure is at stake every day, with unseen attacks, with attacks that surround and invade our space and sovereignty" "in the most elaborate and sophisticated ways you can imagine".

Noting that "this is not something we speak much of in Portugal", he recalled that there was "a European Union state whose presidential elections were overturned based on the misrepresentation of popular will because of the manipulation of the people’s opinion", referring to Romania.

The Prime Minister stressed that "we are talking about the foundations of our more elementary freedoms". 

A wave of news

"I want the Portuguese people at home to understand that when we are talking about investing more in defence, in defence industry, we are also talking about guaranteeing their wellbeing every day so they can continue to do what they are used to doing", "deciding o their everyday life for themselves", adding that "investing in defence today also means this".

Claiming that "Portugal today has excellent conditions to house defence investments", he noted that "there is a wave of news on the increase in defence expenditure", when it is actually an increase in investment.

"It makes all the difference if we look at this as expense or rather promoting investment. To be direct and clear: if we can increase our financial resources allocated to defence just by procuring material from those who produce it or if we can produce our own equipment", he said.

For this, Portugal must make the most of "the installed capacity on knowledge, innovation, and research", "companies’ know-how", and the capacity to "reconvert and revitalize" some of the industries "that can be reconfigured".

The Ministers of National Defence Nuno Melo and of Economy Pedro Reis also attended the exhibition.