Portugal’s second political force, the new ‘opposition’ since last May’s elections, has announced that it is filing a request today for a commission of inquiry into the fires that have been cutting a swathe through the northern and central interior of the country ‘and the business’ that may be behind them.
This is definitely not the first time a party has alluded to interests that could lie behind this perennial scourge that destroys so much in the way of property, biodiversity, and hope.
Speaking on Sunday before a visit to Pedrógão Grande where two fires broke out on Saturday in yet another situation that smells of arson, CHEGA leader André Ventura said his party is “going to carry out a serious investigation into the fires, we’re going to propose to parliament that it do so and that it recommend legislation that leaves nothing the same (…) It is time to take this step” and move towards “investigating fires in Portugal, the business surrounding fires and the lack of prevention,” he said.
The bottom line will be whether it is possible to “conclude whether we have a web of business” behind these outbreaks – as has so often been claimed by commentators and ‘former’ public servants.
Thus, the commission will call “former and current government officials, people linked to the fire and timber business and also to the organisation of the territory,” said Ventura, referring to the fires that have broken out most recently (as in Pedrógão) being “highly suspicious in everyone’s eyes”.
“Some of them start a short distance away, at times when there isn’t even much heat, in areas that are highly dense with vegetation and forestation. This means that there is a criminal hand at work here and probably a business behind it. Today I am firmly convinced that we have a mafia business behind the fires,” he insisted.
Considering that the “Polícia Judiciária has done a job that should be noted” and that “Justice has investigated the fire cartel”, André Ventura argued that parliament should also do its job.
One of Ventura’s suggestions is to recommend legislation that prohibits the trading of wood resulting from fires – as well as increasing the penalties for those convicted of forest fires and changing the law so that it considers an arsonist to be a terrorist.
“Yesterday (Saturday) I heard people in Pedrógão, but also in other areas, saying that nothing had been done to prevent the fires. A politician has to get to the point of saying: “let’s see what failed and why does this keep happening?” I’ve been saying for a long time that these guys (arsonists) have to be locked up. And as long as they’re not arrested, there’s no prevention that will last,” he said.
Acknowledging that the “penal issue is not the only one that will resolve this issue”, André Ventura insisted that parliament must investigate “who is profiting from this”.
“What’s more, whoever is linked to these shady fire deals can’t have any dealings with the state,” he added.
Ventura also argued that the state should take over from private landowners when it comes to clearing land, as not everyone has the financial capacity to do so.
“This is a sovereign task and (in the interests of) everyone’s safety,” he said, explaining that “when the fire starts, it is not the individual who owns the property who goes there alone to stop the fire” and “it takes millions to contain the fire, it takes millions in damage and human lives, animal lives and property destroyed”.
Ventura’s stand will have done a great deal to increase support for CHEGA, given that the government has been seen as still very ‘absent in the field’. Ventura, on the other hand, has been busy, promoted via social media, delivering water bottles to fire stations, and visiting scenes of recent fires where he was even photographed ‘attacking’ a smouldering tree base with a branch (in order to extinguish the threat).
His words on the post, echoing those of presidential candidate Henrique Gouveia e Melo recently: “A leader has to be beside his people. The land is burning. The desolation, rage, frustration. I will never forget what I have seen on this visit to Castelo Branco. We must defend Portugal, whatever it costs!”
By coincidence, firefighter Alexandra Almeida – herself a candidate for AD (the coalition in government) in the coming elections – has also criticised the government over its forest management policies. Writing over social media, the candidate for Alpiarça (Santarém) wrote: “It is not just the fires. It is the lack of planning, the lack of forestry management, the total absence of prevention. Year after year, everything repeats itself”.
Source material: Lusa
