Exercise is ‘double edged’: everything this week is about positive exposure of government
The President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and his entourage are visiting some of the areas affected by recent wildfires that devastated the north and centre of the country earlier this month. They have chosen Baião (Porto district), Vila Pouca de Aguiar (Vila Real district) and Sever do Vouga (Aveiro district), albeit many other areas were marked by the conflagrations.
As Lusa describes: “Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Luís Montenegro are accompanied by the Deputy Minister for Territorial Cohesion, Manuel Castro Almeida and the Minister for Internal Administration, Margarida Blasco”.
The delegation is flying over the burnt areas by helicopter..
This will be the third time that the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister have had a joint initiative in relation to the fires – but this one is different, in that it is ‘all about exposure of the the government’ at a point where ‘knives are out’ back in Lisbon, and the very future of this current government is in doubt.
On arrival in Baião, the two men spoke to the mayor, Paulo Pereira, who addressed the main problem in firefighting during the nightmare week of multiple fires – which he said was a lack of firefighters. What he meant was that there were no ‘fresh replacements’ available to relieve men and women who had been in combat for several hours at a stretch.
After Baião, which they also toured by bus, Marcelo and Luís Montenegro were due to go on to Vila Pouca de Aguiar, and then to Sever do Vouga, where they will have a meeting with dozens of mayors, writes Lusa.
Government measures
The government has already approved legislation to implement measures to support families, businesses and farmers, restore homes, re-establish forests, repair infrastructure and equipment and replace damaged equipment.
Among other measures, the government has announced that it will provide 100% funding up to a limit of €150,000 for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of homes of primary residence, a special subsidy to compensate for agricultural losses, up to a value of €6,000 – and the creation of a line of support for cash flow and the reconstruction of factories.
An exceptional regime for contracting public works contracts has also been approved.
Nine people died and more than 170 were injured as a result of the fires in which around 135,000 hectares were consumed in the space of less than a week (between September 15-20).
By coincidence, today, September 30, sees the end of the country’s ‘most critical period’ for wildfires.
Source material: LUSA
