In statements to journalists in Viseu, where she presented the essential lines of her policy today, Dalila Rodrigues admitted that changes are coming soon to the faces of the public company Museums and Monuments of Portugal (MMP) and the public institute Cultural Heritage (PC).

"To implement certain policies, it is sometimes necessary to replace people and it is natural that we will do so," said the minister, adding that "very soon" she will announce the names of the people "who will execute these measures, these changes" announced today.

Although these measures will begin to be taken within the current legal and administrative framework, the government's intention is to make changes to the legal framework "in the medium term".

"This legislative reform would have been much easier than taking hasty and radical measures that put cultural heritage in a position of great asymmetry," said Dalila Rodrigues, criticizing the administrative reform of cultural heritage carried out by the previous government.

The minister gave the example of "the dismantling of representation structures and the transfer of heritage powers, namely in the area of archaeology, to the CCDR [Regional Coordination and Development Commission]".

In January, the previous government implemented a restructuring of the heritage area that extinguished the former Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage, giving rise to the MMP and the PC, accompanied by the extinction of the regional directorates of culture and which, for Dalila Rodrigues, "was disastrous".

"I receive requests for hearings and expressions of deep dissatisfaction with the administrative reform that was carried out by the previous government in the area of heritage on a daily basis at the ministry," she said.

Dalila Rodrigues also told reporters that the MMP "was creating a structure in the central services that, in some way, mimicked the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage".

"As there has been some development in the contracting sector, but also because museums, monuments and palaces are depleted in human resources, it will be easy to capitalize on these resources, moving them to the aforementioned dependent services that I want to be increasingly independent," she stressed.

Dalila Rodrigues presented the essential lines of her policy on International Museum Day, in a speech at the Grão Vasco National Museum, in Viseu, where she was director between 2001 and 2004.

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