The Secretary-General of the PS declared to journalists in Chaves, before traveling along the Estrada Nacional 2, that it is “incomprehensible that the Ministry of Agriculture has taken more than 120 million euros from forest policies” and diverted them to other areas, “removing these financial resources from what should be a priority.”
José Luís Carneiro also responded to the constant criticisms from the PSD and CDS-PP, the parties forming the government, who systematically blame socialist executives for the country’s current situation regarding wildfires.
“Those who must account for what they did or did not do is the government currently in office,” he stated.
PS Leader Cites Cavaco Silva to Criticize the Government
Carneiro further recalled a quote from “someone who has been a spiritual guru for the Prime Minister,” the former President of the Republic Aníbal Cavaco Silva.
“From six months of governance, a government that seeks to justify its failures with past governments is an incompetent government,” he pointed out.
Asked about the vote that the PS would have in the parliamentary inquiry commission proposed by Chega, José Luís Carneiro emphasized that the socialists were “the first to present a technical inquiry commission.”
He seized the opportunity to criticize the Prime Minister’s actions during the initial phase of the wildfires – when he was still on vacation.
Carneiro Accuses Montenegro of Being “Missing for Ten Days”
“I understand well that there are those with a guilty conscience because they were missing from the country for ten days and wanted to prove they were alive after those ten days,” said the PS leader. “We don’t have that need for one reason: because we were proposing solutions to the Government from the first hour,” the socialist added.
Carneiro questioned why the civil protection system managed to respond to fires in 2022, 2023, and 2024, but faced difficulties this year.
Regarding the solution for the perennial fire scourge, the Secretary-General stated that “there will be no overcoming the structural difficulties the country faces if we are not capable of having investment policies in agriculture, forestry, and the valorization of economic resources.”
