Enough wants annual commission to investigate government’s handling of fires

This Thursday, Chega deputies demanded the “immediate establishment” of a parliamentary commission of inquiry, which must present results within 120 days, in order to “monitor the actions of the government” in the “strategy to prevent and combat forest fires.” The far-right party proposes that the commission should be annual and always formed in November, after the most critical fire season.

In the explanatory note, the Chega deputies recall 115 deaths in 2017 and say that “the situation is also alarming this year.” “Portugal is currently the third country in the European Union with the highest percentage of burned areas. We are surpassed only by Spain and Romania. The number of reported incidents is also the highest in the past five years. more than 200 wounded and about 900 people were preventively evacuated. The main highway of the country has already been cut twice,” they say.

Emphasizes the “responsibility of the government to develop national strategies aimed at mitigating the effects of fires and mitigating their effects on the population”, and mentions that there are shortcomings associated with the “incipient professionalization of the fire fighting model, lack of human resources”. and material resources, air assets are included in the latter.” “Successive governments have shown themselves unable to respond to this problem, usually protecting themselves, and whenever something goes wrong, in unforeseen cases or which elude any predictive or control capabilities.” They accuse.