Agriculture minister José Manuel Fernandes – a man who has already sparked outrage in his rants against government agencies that don’t roll over for environmentally harmful projects – got a lesson in good manners yesterday from Coimbra mayor, Ana Abrunhosa.
The ‘altercation’ happened when Fernandes – making his very first visit to the territory battered by floods earlier this month – started ‘talking to the press’ before the arrival of Abrunhosa, with other mayors and council officials.
Fernandes claims this was because the group was 20 minutes late. He explained later that he had come principally to talk to farmers hit by recent weather-related catastrophes, and ‘didn’t want to keep them waiting’.
This was not the way Ana Abrunhosa saw the situation – and the woman who has become very much a national heroine for her handling of Coimbra’s many issues during the bad weather, cut straight into Fernandes’ apparent ‘press conference’ on the banks of the Mondego river, telling him in that this was not the way to do things.
“We would have liked to talk to the minister before he made declarations (to the press),” she challenged. “There is an institutional duty here: you have to speak with the mayors. If you have come to hold a press conference, we will leave…”
Visibly surprised by the way he was being treated ‘on air’, Fernandes attempted to gain the higher ground. But quickly conceded when Ms Abrunhosa pointed out that she had also been a minister, and would never have muscled into a municipality in such a thoughtless way. Fernandes was showing a ‘lack of urbanity’, she told him – reminding him that Coimbra was in a state of calamity.
It was here that Fernandes really came unstuck: “The situation of calamity has passed”, he said (as if the government’s decision to end it had somehow miraculously fixed the fall-out that has been calculated as likely to cost €6 billion nationally). “Just look around you…” Abrunhosa shot back.
Minutes later, tempers seemed to have mollified considerably. Ana Abrunhosa was smiling again. The minister was ‘forgiven’ – albeit he seemed to think that it was he who had done the forgiving: “As a good Christian, I of course forgive all this…” he told Rádio Observador later.
There is no doubt, however, over which of the two emerged in the best light from this ‘exchange of opinions’ in Coimbra.
And today, Fernandes has a new challenge in the form of a protest mounted by farmers and producers who claim that the measures in place to help them fall far too short.
Estimates for the extent of damages suffered due to drowned crops, and lost animals, run well over a billion euros – mainly for farmers in the centre of the country.
And while farmers and other producers will be gathered outside parliament to show their feelings today, inside the government will be under attack for the ‘cracks’ in their assurances to companies and families that simplified lay-off would guarantee 100% salaries. This has since proved not to be the case, and opposition parties say this is time for the government to either ‘stick to its word’, and not try to plead poverty and/ or bureaucratic hurdles, and, if necessary, retroactively amend the 2026 State Budget.
Sources: SIC/ Lusa/ Antena 1
