Anyone anticipating yesterday’s ‘urgent debate’ in parliament on the government’s management of Portugal’s summer wildfires will have soon wondered why. The event turned into the habitual shouting match, ‘resolving nothing’.
Summing the afternoon up, Correio da Manhã’s ‘star reporter’ Tânia Laranjo, was succinct: the fires were “discussed with the same effectiveness with which they are being prevented: none.”
PS leader José Luís Carneiro “condemned” the prime minister for not having cancelled the PSD summer party in the Algarve as the north and centre burned, PSD parliamentary leader Hugo Soares “in response (…) recalled that Carneiro had also enjoyed the good life at a Sardine Festival while (parts of the country) burned…
“CHEGA too entered the fray to criticise the absence of (the prime minister) in the field, and was accused of having staged a scene” in which leader André Ventura was seen extinguishing a fire “that had already gone out.
“Ventura pretended to be a firefighter for a day – but the truth is that all (political figures) only appeared once the country had been burning for several days.
“In the end, between sardines, selfies and ash, no-one put out any fires. And, as always, the thing that continues to burn is the patience of the Portuguese”, concludes Laranjo.
In short, it was a lack-lustre debate that has not moved anything along.
Lusa stressed that the PM ‘rejected’ PS allegations that the government had “withdrawn funds from forestry policies”, stressing that what has happened has been “a reprogramming of EU funds (…) and some reprogramming in terms of community funds, as also happened under the Socialist Party governments”. He also reiterated that it was “truly unfair” to suggest the government has been ‘absent’ from the wildfire drama, albeit he may “have contributed to creating this perception” (by enjoying a party in his shirtsleeves in the Algarve, and talking about the possibility of a return to the region of Formula 1 racing).
There was also a point where CHEGA and Bloco de Esquerda leaders exchanged habitual mutual animosity, with the former querying why the latter seems to think it is important to set sail for Gaza this week in a humanitarian flotilla that is more than likely to have a similar effect as all the others before it.
Source: Correio da Manhã/ Lusa
