Marcelo defends administrative revolution to respond to fires like Serra da Estrela
The President of the Republic defended this Monday the need for an administrative revolution to respond more effectively to major fires, such as the one that occurred in Serra da Estrela last August.
“For Serra da Estrela – and perhaps for other parks and for other situations of this nature – there has to be a structure thought out, at least for critical situations. This is a revolution in the Portuguese administrative organization. It was not designed for that and it has to if you think about it”, he said.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke at the fire station in Covilhã, Castelo Branco district, at the beginning of a visit that he is carrying out today to the territory affected by the great fire in Serra da Estrela, which in August consumed a total of 24 thousand hectares of burned area.
After a ‘briefing’ made by the national commander of the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC) about this fire, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa highlighted the fact that the flames have covered two districts (Castelo Branco and Guarda) and six different municipalities, as well as as different operational commands and intervention forces.
In this way, he stressed that one of the lessons to be learned is to apply an “administrative transformation” that allows for a broader response, not least because “everyone has the same cause” and “everyone wears the same shirt”.
“The only way to have an effective fight and effective prevention in the future is that whoever is in these municipalities – she or he, from the smallest – has the notion that what they have to defend is the whole. It’s not a parish, it’s not a municipality. Even less a place, or a locality, or a street, or a house”, he added.
On this visit, the President of the Republic is accompanied by the Minister of Internal Administration, José Luís Carneiro, and in addition to Covilhã, visits to the municipalities of Manteigas, Seia, Gouveia, Celorico da Beira and Guarda are also planned.