“Unfortunately, the country is in a severe state, one that we consider to be of great calamity. The interior has been affected by numerous fires, and sadly today another person died while helping to fight these fires. These are more than enough reasons for the Government to be scrutinized and for there to be a permanent commission,” stated Pedro Pinto.
The Chega MP addressed journalists at the Assembly of the Republic, following a leaders’ conference meeting that scheduled a debate with the Prime Minister on fighting fires for Wednesday. The requests for calling an extraordinary permanent commission came from Chega and PCP.
“Permanent commissions serve precisely for this, to provide clarifications to the country, for us to question the Government on what it is doing, what is failing in this fight against fires, and it has failed a lot in this fight against fires,” he argued, asserting that the “Government cannot shirk its responsibilities.”
Chega Doubts Government Will Provide “Necessary Clarifications”
Regarding the presence of the Minister of Internal Administration, which Chega also requested, Pedro Pinto remarked that this decision rests with the Government and criticized the agreed format for the debate.
“The Government will open the debate and close the debate. In other words, it will not answer the questions during the debate,” he criticized, anticipating that “there may not be the necessary clarifications.”
Pedro Pinto also noted the change in the position of the PS, particularly the party leader initially opposing, but then the socialists voting in favor of the debate, citing the Prime Minister’s expressed willingness to go to parliament.
“It is up to us to question what the PS is doing. We know what it did or didn’t do in recent years. In civil protection, it put a web of socialist influence in charge, sidelining firefighters from fire command and neglecting the interior of the country,” he criticized, accusing the PS of being “complicit in what is happening in Portugal,” which he described as terrorism that “has lasted for years, decades.”
The parliamentary leader of Chega argued that this extraordinary meeting of the permanent commission of the Assembly of the Republic “did not even have to be requested” by the parties, namely Chega and PCP, asserting that it should have been the President of the Assembly of the Republic to convene it.
Liberal Initiative Cites “Complete Disorganization” of Executive
Also speaking to journalists in parliament, IL leader Mariana Leitão deemed it “very important” to hear the Prime Minister in parliament, adding that the “way the Government has managed this entire calamity is, by no means, up to the circumstances.”
According to the Liberal leader, there has been from the executive “complete disorganization, lack of leadership, and even a somewhat erratic behavior or response from the Prime Minister to the criticisms being made”:
Mariana Leitão further criticized the Minister of Internal Administration, Maria Lúcia Amaral, for not responding to journalists’ questions in press conferences about the fires, arguing that the minister had that duty and it is “serious” that she did not fulfill it, while noting it is not “pertinent to demand resignations.”
“More than words, what people need at this moment is some assurance that, on the one hand, things will not worsen because we still continue with a very severe situation to this day, with a tendency to continue. What people need is to ensure that this does not happen again with these proportions,” she appealed further.
