The Minister of Internal Administration refused this Wednesday to respond to deputies about the forest fires that broke out in the country in the third week of September, claiming that this was not the reason for the parliamentary hearing requested by the PS and PCP.
“The questions (posed by the deputies) go a little beyond the scope of this interpellation” and “I will not answer the questions because they are limited to matters that were not in the requirements” were Margarida Blasco’s responses when questioned by opposition deputies about the fires which devastated the northern and central regions of the country in the third week of September, causing nine deaths and consuming around 135 thousand hectares of forest.
The minister sent information for October 22nd, when she will be back at the Assembly of the Republic for a regulatory hearing.
Margarido Blasco also said that by then he will have the final report from the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) on “what went well or wrong” in the 2024 fires.
The hearing of the Minister of Internal Administration, in the parliamentary committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, was requested by the PCP, on the means of civil protection available to combat rural fires in the summer months of 2024, and by the PS, on the management of civil protection resources in the fire that occurred in August in Madeira.
Source: www.cmjornal.pt
