Back from his week’s Open Presidency in the areas hit by the winter’s carousel of storms, President Seguro has turned up the pressure on the government by another notch. It owes the country a report on the storms: “in black and white”.
Portugal’s head of state is already focused on making sure promised support gets through to people and businesses (still) waiting for it, but now he has a new objective: a report that will document exactly what happened, so that “lessons can be learned”.
“I am not fixing a time limit on the presentation of this report, but it is owed to the country,” he said – stressing that he hopes insurance companies will also “accelerate the validation of reports compiled by their assessors.”
The report the president is hoping for will need to be “general” so that “the country can face reality with clarity, taking into account the resources at its disposal, and better organise its capacity to respond”, in future situations. “We cannot continue to waste time without a document that truly explains what happened in the final days of January and the first few days of February (…) what went well, and what went badly,” he told a meeting of various authorities/ mayors etc. before returning to Lisbon yesterday.
Bottom line: “Things cannot remain the same” The country must be better prepared for next time the heavens open for weeks on end.
Source material: Observador / Lusa
