The Liberal Initiative (IL) wants to call to parliament the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security and the Minister of Territorial Cohesion to provide explanations about what “remains to be done” after the Pedrógão Grande fires.
The announcement was made by the president of the IL through a publication on the social network Twitter, in which he said that the party “will present tomorrow [Monday] a request for the Minister of Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho, and the Minister of Territorial Cohesion, Ana Abrunhosa, to be heard urgently in the Assembly of the Republic” on Pedrógão Grande.
With six years having passed since the tragedy, Rui Rocha believes that “the Portuguese deserve clear explanations about everything that remains to be done.
“Six years after the fires in Pedrógão Grande, Castanheira de Pera and Figueiró dos Vinhos, there are still houses to rebuild. Some first homes and almost all those that were not first homes. It’s incomprehensible,” he points out.
The IL leader also argues that the money from the Revita fund, “constituted mainly thanks to the donations of the Portuguese, has to be invested in that territory.
And he questions: “What are the government’s plans for the funds that still exist in the fund? How is the articulation with the municipalities being made? Why did the government make an order to nationalize Revita when the regulation of the fund itself provides exactly the opposite? What is the objective?”.
In Rui Rocha’s view, “it is immoral” because “the state does not own that money.
The president of the IL believes that “those funds should be applied in the much that was left undone in the affected territories”.
The deputy also points out “an enormous opacity in the management of Revita,” indicating that “the quarterly execution reports have not been published for a year and the 2022 report and accounts are also not known.”
“What’s going on? Who is not doing their part: the Revita Management Board or the political guardianship?” adds Rui Rocha.
Saturday marked six years since the fires that broke out on June 17, 2017 in Pedrógão Grande, and spread to neighboring counties, causing the deaths of 66 people, and injuries to another 253, seven of which were serious. The fires also destroyed about half a thousand homes and 50 businesses.
Most of the fatalities were found on National Road (EN) 236-1, which connects Castanheira de Pera and Figueiró dos Vinhos, next to which a memorial has been erected.
In October of the same year, other fires in the Central region caused 49 deaths and around 70 people were injured, with the total or partial destruction of around 1,500 homes and more than 500 businesses.
