“I am incredulous. I didn’t know about this, I am incredulous. The PS must explain why. I am incredulous about it. I just hope the lady [journalist] is mistaken, but unfortunately, maybe she is not,” responded Paulo Raimundo when confronted by journalists about the socialists’ decision during a visit to burned areas in the municipality of Ponte da Barca, Viana do Castelo district.
The Socialist Party’s secretary-general announced today that the party will vote against Chega and PCP’s requests to discuss in parliament the coordination of firefighting, with the presence of the prime minister and the minister of internal administration.
“The PS is against political maneuvering at a time when efforts are being made to combat fires that threaten people’s lives and their properties,” justified José Luís Carneiro, speaking to journalists in the city of Horta, on Faial Island, Azores, at the end of a visit to the local RTP/Azores facilities.
Paulo Raimundo argued that “now is the time to fight the fires, to safeguard lives, to preserve the soil, to end the large fires that still exist.”
“I would say we are still far from the end of this turbulent period, and indeed, now is the time for it. But if we don’t take measures now and understand what went well and what went wrong, then we will always be dragging our feet. We have been dragging our feet for many years, and the consequences are evident. We are getting used to the fact that for the PS, it’s never the right time for anything,” accused the PCP leader.
On Monday, a source from the office of the president of the Assembly of the Republic stated that the conference of parliamentary leaders will meet on Wednesday to discuss Chega’s request for an urgent debate on firefighting coordination with the presence of the prime minister and the minister of internal administration.
Today, the PCP Parliamentary Group requested an extraordinary meeting of the Permanent Commission of the Assembly of the Republic with the presence of the prime minister to discuss the fires affecting the country.
José Luís Carneiro said today that the PS will vote against the requests at the leaders’ conference.
“It is a vote against. When we are against, we must be consistent, which means a vote against what I consider an inappropriate exploitation at a particularly critical moment,” he justified.
He added that there will be a time to evaluate what “went well and what did not” and that the PS has already presented “alternative proposals on how things could be done well.”
When asked if the PS’s position is due to the proposals being from PCP and Chega, he replied, “We believe it is an inappropriate use […] we will not do to Dr. Luís Montenegro, nor will we say about Dr. Luís Montenegro, what Dr. Luís Montenegro said about Dr. António Costa and the Socialist Party when it was in Government, regarding the fires.”
José Luís Carneiro reiterated that the prime minister should politically lead the fight against fires, “in the sense of giving directions,” thus proposing the convening of the National Civil Protection Commission.
He also considers it important to know “why the Minister of Agriculture and Forests has not yet spoken.”
