Portugal’s President, in a superb display of doing what presidents should do, has laid it on the line for the current prime minister, António Costa, whose future now looks shakier than at any point during his leadership.
Appalled that he alone is visiting and hugging survivors of the latest deadly fires, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has insisted that the government apologises for letting down the public by failing to undertake the number one obligation of any government, to protect its citizens and if it can not do this, he will dissolve parliament.
The president has said 'enough is enough' with the insincere political hand-wringing that accompanies each disaster caused by forest fires. It is time to change the whole forestry and firefighting system, strip out useless ‘jobs for the boys’ appointments, remove the Minister for Internal Affairs, Constança da Sousa, sort out many clearly dangerous forests and if there is no budget, find one.
Rebelo de Sousa was in fighting form as he addressed the nation last night and has broken through the veil of carefully chosen political words being employed until now by the government which has talked of the recent tragedy and promises to ‘reinforce measures’ in the ‘medium-term’ while limply blaming past administrations for the July 17th fire at Pedrógão Grande that killed 65 and last weekend’s infernos that managed to send a further 41 citizens to early graves.
The motion of censure proposed by CDS leader Asunção Cristas, albeit a motion that is astoundingly barefaced as she was the minister that opened up widespread eucalyptus planting on an even wider scale, must be taken seriously by Costa if he wishes to remain in power.
Rebelo de Sousa, his political instincts tempered by good sense and humanity, has challenged the left wing parties currently supporting the socialist government that if they vote to keep Costa in power, they also are voting for fundamental changes in the system, or ‘the cycle’ as he calls it, in a speech that today is on every news service in the country.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s challenge is simple, the Left Bloc and Communist parties must state, in black or white - yes or no - if they still support the executive led by António Costa.
One really good start for António Costa would be to take a deep breath and actually apologise to the nation.
Costa’s ‘human touch’ has been reported on extensively during his tenure but his failure to say sorry for the State's inept responses to the two big periods of fire this year has switched his image from a friendly, avuncular, trustworthy figure to one of insincerity
“...refusing to apologise to the Portuguese is to not recognise anything of the tragedy that has happened in the country,” said the president in a clear challenge to Costa’s current strategy of blaming everything on acts of God and the former PM, Pedro Passos Coelho.
As for the fate of Minister Constança Urbano de Sousa, whose job already looked shaky, the president demanded that a ‘new cycle’ is started, i.e. a new way of doing things around here, which “inevitably will force the government to consider [...] who, how and when this cycle is best served," while demanding that "the government take all the consequences of the tragedy."
The President of the Republic also made a point of trashing the government's plan to keep things gently ticking over until its mysterious ‘reforms’ are completed in the conveniently vague ‘long-term’ as this means that further tragedies can happen in the meantime, eliciting the same platitudes and evasions while more citizens die in fear and agony.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa knows his role as president and correctly states that it is up to parliament to decide on the life of the government,
"If in the Assembly of the Republic there are those who question the capacity of the current government to make these changes that are indispensable and unavoidable, then, under the terms of the Constitution, we hope that the same Assembly will clarify whether or not to keep the government in office," he said, adding that in the more-than-likely case the executive remains in office, surviving the motion, then it will have to fill most "essential condition to strengthen the mandate for urgent reforms."
The president said this really is the last opportunity to make the forest a "national priority".
"It is time to rebuild, to start a new path, to believe in the future, the basis of change in relation to the past," he insisted, saying that if there are budgetary constraints, "forest and fire prevention should be given priority, this is the last opportunity to take action on this issue. If there are budgetary constraints, give priority to the forest and fire prevention."
The president has made this a personal challenge. Clearly affected by meeting victims’ families he said he sees the achievement of reforms, as outlined in the two reports so far submitted on the Pedrógão Grande fire, as a test of his own mandate,
"For me as President of the Republic, to change this area is one of the decisive tests to fulfill the mandate I have assumed, and I will fully commit myself to it until the end of this mandate."
The Council of Ministers meets this coming Saturday.
If ground-breaking changes are not announced after this key and extraordinary meeting, including an end to the fire-dependent contracts with private sector suppliers, the cleaning or forests and creation of fire breaks, the televised evisceration of arsonists, the reinstallation of fire-watch personnel, the use of the Armed Forces, and the prosecution of those who for years have illegally benefitted from summer blazes, Costa’s administration will be in big trouble come next Tuesday's vote on the censure motion which needs just nine rebels to topple the government.
