“At this moment, firefighters earn just over three euros per hour. This is disgraceful, it is a value that does not dignify the firefighters and, above all, does not dignify the country,” stated the president of Chega.
Speaking to journalists at the Assembly of the Republic after a meeting with the League of Portuguese Firefighters, André Ventura indicated that the party is “pointing towards increasing the hourly rate to five euros” to align “what firefighters earn under these circumstances with firefighters working in other settings at the level of the OECD and the European Union.”
“We left the commitment to the League of Firefighters that we will proceed before the State Budget, and we hope to count on some consensus here in the chamber, at least in advance, to guarantee a dignified remuneration index for firefighters who currently do not have one,” he stated, considering that “this can be done now.”
André Ventura indicated that Chega will also propose changes in “the command and coordination of Civil Protection” and expressed an intention for the changes to come into effect by the end of the year.
“We have to ensure that there is a Civil Protection structure that decides at a national level, a coordination of means, resource allocation, etc., but that those who decide operationally in command of the grounds at the district level are 18 district firefighter commands,” he noted, arguing that “it makes no sense that Civil Protection in Lisbon continues giving orders to firefighters who are on the ground fighting fires.”
The president of Chega also stated that the party requested a scheduling for September 25 for a debate “on the issue of fighting fires and on the reorganization of firefighters and Civil Protection.”
“It is the day we have to solve a longstanding problem that has not been resolved for a long time. Solving their remuneration index, defining a career for firefighters, and, above all, ending this gigantic monster of Civil Protection and ensuring that commands are of firefighters at the district level, that have the allocation of means and that operational decisions are made by firefighters also at the district level,” he listed, saying that he will approach the PSD to determine if there is “a consensus on this matter.”
“We can leave the large macrostructural changes for another moment, but for now, I think Chega and PSD should agree on this, the firefighters ask for this, the populations ask for this, and I think we have to solve this problem quickly,” he defended.
