The solution to the long queues at Lisbon airport? Tourists will be responsible for better organizing their own arrival dates, said Interior Administration Minister José Luís Carneiro. At least, that’s what a Facebook post claims, supposedly showing the frame in which the moment was broadcast live on television.

Outraged, this Facebook user refers to the chaos that took place at the Lisbon airport, specifically on May 29, the day on which a meeting of SEF workers took place that paralyzed the queues at the airport, with international flight passengers. from outside the country. Europe having to wait several hours at passport control.

And he says that he heard Carneiro, on television, make the following suggestion: “Tourists have to better organize their arrival date.” “’Great, man!’, as Ing. Sócrates says. Organize yourselves and go to the neighboring country”, concludes, in a tone of irony, the user.

It turns out that José Luís Carneiro did not say this. From the beginning, it is possible to see frame who shares on his Facebook account that the alleged quote from a very smiling minister, which seems to be taken from the SIC Sunday newscast, is written in another font, which does not correspond to the style that the channel uses in all its news. Everything indicates, therefore, that it is a manipulated image.

Then, looking at the images that correspond to the minister’s statements that day, on the sidelines of the celebrations of the National Firefighter’s Day, in Lamego, it seems that Carneiro described what happened at the airport as “very serious” and announced a contingency plan to avoid similar situations, recruiting more human resources in various structures of SEF workers throughout the country.

“The right to hold plenary sessions is an inalienable right of workers. However, it is very important to evaluate the exercise of this right at all times”, defended the minister. But he replied: this right cannot endanger “other values ​​that are also very important, namely, the values ​​related to the interest of the country and the image that the country gives to the thousands of tourists who seek Portugal and I do not understand how three, four hours, waiting at the airport.”

Carneiro also spoke about the arrival time of the tourists, saying that it is known that 9 and 11, the time for which the workers’ plenary was scheduled, is the period of the day in which they arrive in greater numbers. “Between 9 and 11 in the morning between 3,500 and 4,000 passengers arrive,” he said. “The country cannot block because it is intended to convene a plenary session of workers for a time when the country is most sought after by visitors from all over the world who want to get to know Portugal and who have a very positive image of Portugal.”

In short, Carneiro not only failed to blame the tourists for the confusion, advising them to change the arrival date, but also repeatedly criticized the workers who scheduled a strike for the hour when there were more arrivals.

More recently, the minister told the newspaper Público that a new ruling will lead to the dismissal of those responsible at the airport. But he also added that this weekend there was a “normalization in the operation of passenger arrivals and departures at Lisbon airport, largely due to the immediate measures implemented.”

conclusion

It is not true that José Luís Carneiro has suggested to tourists to change their arrival dates to solve the chaos and queues at the Humberto Delgado airport. It is possible to verify that the image is manipulated and, seeing the minister’s statements, that Carneiro never said that phrase. What I said went, in fact, in the opposite direction: that it is necessary to defend the image of Portugal among those who arrive, criticizing, moreover, the time chosen for the meeting of workers, which is when most tourists arrive at the airport . .

Thus, according to the Observer classification system, this content is:

WRONG

In the Facebook rating system, this content is:

FAKE: The main content claims are factually inaccurate. This option typically matches “false” or “mostly false” ratings on fact-checking websites.

NOTE: This content was curated by The Observer as part of a fact-checking partnership with Facebook.