“Anyone who says that we can reindustrialize the Portuguese economy, achieve an ecological transition, plan for the future, and ensure security and defense without having control over our electrical infrastructure is lying,” stated Mariana Mortágua during a press conference in Lisbon.
When asked about advancing the recovery of REN without broader left-wing support and considering the remarks from Socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos, who claimed on Tuesday that even with the company in state hands, the recent power outage would not have been avoided, Mortágua dismissed direct ownership of REN as the issue.
The country’s electricity network is intertwined with multiple “essential functions and sovereignty,” and therefore, “cannot be in the hands of a foreign state (China),” declared Mortágua, emphasizing that “everyone realized that if there is external interference in the electricity grid, Portugal stops.”
Recovering the electricity network by the state is “the basic level of common sense,” argued the BE leader, suggesting that “sooner or later, all parties or almost all, except those clouded by market dogmatism, will reach this conclusion.”
For Mortágua, it is also “absurd that the country is discussing spending billions of euros on armaments and not being able to nationalize its electricity network, its basic electrical infrastructure,” as she pointed out potential conflicts of interest between REN and EDP, companies operating at various levels in the energy sector.
“The Bloco de Esquerda has long been warning about the risks of privatizing strategic sectors and the importance of recovering these strategic sectors. This importance is twofold. On one hand, maintaining infrastructure essential to the state, and on the other, keeping public control over essential infrastructure,” she summarized.
The Secretary-General of the PS dismissed on Tuesday the idea that REN’s private status contributed to Monday’s blackout, avoiding ideological conclusions and reminding that Portugal “had energy capacity” at the time of the failure.
A widespread power outage on Monday from 11:30 a.m. affected Portugal and Spain, with authorities still unable to provide an explanation.
Airports closure, transportation and traffic congestion in major cities, and a lack of fuel were some of the consequences of the “blackout.”
The electricity distribution network operator E-Redes assured this morning that the service has been fully restored and normalized.
