The general secretary of the PS, José Luís Carneiro, confirmed that his parliamentary group is available to approve an Amending Budget that allows it to face the effects of bad weatherplacing monthly monitoring of execution by the Assembly of the Republic as a condition, but heard the Prime Minister respond that the Government still does not consider it necessary to resort to that instrument.
“We have not yet found any justification for moving forward with an Amending Budget. If we can conclude that it is necessary, we will establish political dialogue to make it viable”, replied Luís Montenegroadding that the PTRR, a “truly national program” with which the government intends to respond to the damage caused by the storms that hit Portugal, foresees an eventual parliamentary commission to monitor it.
Right at the beginning of his intervention, the socialist leader said that “the Government arrived late and at a bad time in preventing and responding to the urgency and emergency that struck the populations”, but left the promise of “not doing to today’s prime minister what he did in the past to the then prime minister”guaranteeing that “we will not make the tragedy an instrument of political-partisan struggle”.
José Luís Carneiro asked why some applications for support related to the 2025 fires had not yet been analyzed, hearing from Luís Montenegro that “some municipalities have not been able to respond”. But the prime minister also blamed the “alliance between the two largest opposition parties” for having changed candidacy rules, in what he said was the “consequence of the dizziness that some parties have in wanting to govern from Parliament”.
The PS secretary general said that it would be fine for the prime minister to admit that he “inherited a normative building that comes from Pedrógão Grande and covid-19”, adding that Montenegro failed the “fundamental duties that the Basic Civil Protection Law establishes and enshrines”, listing what he said were failures in the principles of prevention, precaution, coordination, cooperation, single command and information. “If the Government had not failed, the dismissal of the Minister of Internal Administration would be unjustifiable,” he stated, asking what led the Government to take five days to convene the National Emergency and Civil Protection Commission and determine the emergency and civil protection plan, as well as not to have activated the European Civil Protection Mechanism, which José Luís Carneiro defended to allow populations access to generators and emergency shelters.
Luís Montenegro opted for irony when responding to the socialist leader. “I can’t help but say that the deputy doesn’t hide his longing for being Minister of Internal Affairs. But missing it doesn’t mean being a good minister”he said, claiming that there were no delays impacting the State’s response to the bad weather, as ministers were coordinated. “Did you want more bureaucracy and meetings? I was there on the first day, at three in the afternoon”, he said, again defending that “everything was done to anticipate what was anticipated”.
For your part, José Luís Carneiro argued that “this is not a Government for difficult times”, citing the failures in forest fires and when the power grid went out. But he said again that the PS intends to cooperate with the Executive, asking if more municipalities could have the same conditions as those that were included in the state of calamity. To this, Luís Montenegro responded that “the state of calamity is over” and that the PTRR’s recovery and reconstruction mechanisms will be applied throughout the territory.
José Luís Carneiro ended by saying that “it was time for the Government to ensure one of the fundamental pillars of State sovereignty”, presenting the name of who will replace Maria Lúcia Amaralwho reportedly resigned at the beginning of this month. The Prime Minister simply responded that, “in our political-constitutional system, you have the obligation to present your name to the President of the Republic”.
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