Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has entered the political arena over Portugal’s appalling summer of fires but trying to deflect political responsibilities.
The President of the Republic stated that the problem of fires and Portugal's forests are “national causes” and that this is "not the time to make a political analysis" of what has failed.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was in the Castelo Branco area where fires have already destroyed 15,000 hectares of forest. He was asked about the political responsibilities involved in the fires that have hit Portugal this summer, especially about the responsibility of the Minister of Internal Administration.
Marcelo said that the time has come to turn the page on the fires and that there is a time when the priority is the fight against fires and "not to analyze, debate, balance, or to compare with other years or other situations."
"We are closer to the end of the fire season, but we are still fighting fires and we have to join forces until the end," said the president who thanked “the Portuguese and those institutions that are fighting for a national cause," noting the “courage of the Portuguese which has been tested in various parts of the country."
Meanwhile, the row over the SIRESP emergency communications system failures continues after PT’s chief technical officer Alexandre Fonseca said late on August 24th, just before a busy holiday weekend, "It is our firm conviction that, as always, PT has fulfilled and exceeded unequivocally all the levels of service contracted by SIRESP," and that "there were no failures in the SIRESP network."
This clearly has not been the case as SIRESP has failed on many occassions, thus inflaming the increasing row over Portugal's forestry management, arson, firefighting response and the politics surrounding this summer's events.
See also:
'Dodgy emergency communication system - "There were no failures in the SIRESP network" claims PT'
Comments
I agree with Charly. The blame for the poor service remains with the government. PT sold the service they were asked for. Do you blame them for that? It is their job to maximise profits. It is the job of the government to specify the job they want done.
I suspect that the government went for the cheaper landline based option; and that a satellite based system, or a radio based system, would have cost much more.
The conclusion must be that the contracted system is not what the politicians would have us believe. And that the politicians knew about the landlines, and took the risk that they would not be burned out. Now the President is now trying to protect the politicians from public exposure and public wrath.