“The likelihood of repeating the summer of 2025 is not within my future projections,” stated Maria Lúcia Amaral during the parliamentary debate on the Government’s proposal for the State Budget for 2026 (OE2026).
The minister argued that “the issue of forest fires is a major internal security concern” and regretted that the country must “face an increasingly sophisticated enemy,” necessitating sufficient resources to prevent fire outbreaks.
According to the official, forest fires “are not a seasonal topic for the Government.”
“We think about it every day and strive to study it to prevent the tragedy from recurring. We have many resources today to study them. Fortunately, we have an academic community dedicated to this phenomenon. We need to equip ourselves with enough knowledge to build a truly effective combat system,” she said.
The minister committed to “changing the organizational law of the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC) to reorganize its implementation in the territory effectively and rationally, clarify chains of command, make them predictable and clear to everyone, prevent the proliferation of initiatives, and instill in the combat system the response rationality that is demanded.”
The Secretary of State for Civil Protection later added that the changes to the ANEPC’s organizational law will be completed by the end of the year.
When questioned by PCP deputy Paula Santos about the funding system for the firefighters’ humanitarian associations, the minister stated that “it is a complex system that does not depend solely on the State Budget,” also relying on other funding sources such as local (municipalities) and private contributions.
