The Minister for the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, is visiting Portugal’s central region this Friday, 30 January, principally the areas most affected by Storm Kristin, accompanied by the European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jørgensen, and the Portuguese ministers for the Environment and for Culture, Youth and Sport.
Speaking in Marinha Grande, Leitão Amaro urged the population to follow official warnings in the coming days and to adopt appropriate precautionary behaviour. “The rain will continue, the ground is saturated and the wind may return. The next few days therefore remain a period of alert and adaptation,” he stated.
He stressed that these are “days when we all join forces, we Portuguese, together with Europeans, to rebuild the country and to rebuild this central region”. “We will manage it, but at great cost,” he added.
“The scale of the damage is brutal, as everyone can see, across all areas, from public infrastructure to natural heritage,” the minister said.
Leitão Amaro pointed to the “vast number of trees destroyed” and damage to sports facilities, schools, private homes, as well as industrial and business premises. “The situation in this region is truly dire,” he underlined, noting that the Minister for the Economy and Territorial Cohesion was meeting with mayors from the affected areas. “All forces are on the ground and making an enormous effort,” he assured.
Following the meeting referred to by Leitão Amaro, Minister Castro Almeida said the losses caused by the severe weather were “well above” those recorded during the wildfires of 2024 or 2025.
“I’ve been doing my own calculations, naturally, as I listened to the descriptions of what is being done, and formed a figure in my head, very rough numbers. What I can say is that they are well above the losses from the fires of 2025 or 2024,” Castro Almeida told journalists.
“From today’s meeting, I could not take away a figure for the total damage. The overwhelming majority of mayors are understandably reluctant to give an estimate of losses for each municipality. It is therefore impossible to arrive at an overall figure,” he said.
The Minister for the Economy acknowledged that some factories are currently unable to operate, warning that “this will disrupt production chains”. “Some factories supply others, so production chains will fail here. This is going to be a serious problem,” he admitted.
“Our concern was to align positions and see how responsibilities can complement one another, and how the Government can help. The essential thing is to take care of people — their living conditions. They need food, they need a place to sleep, and then their work,” he said, noting that situations vary widely, citing one municipality that reported 15 schools left without roofs.
The minister said that channels had been established to allow mayors to cooperate and raise issues directly with the Government. “There is now a line of communication between local authorities and the Government. That is what we wanted to create today, to facilitate contact so that the Government can provide whatever support is required,” Castro Almeida added.
Earlier today, the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party (PS), José Luís Carneiro, who met with 32 Socialist mayors from the districts most affected by Storm Kristin to receive damage reports and updates, criticised the Government and called for an effective response to affected communities.
“The feeling is that, once again, the Government has shown insensitivity and a lack of preparedness to anticipate and manage this crisis in a timely manner. It happened during the blackout, it happened during the fires, and it has happened again now,” the PS leader said.
Carneiro also argued that the declaration of a state of calamity was “delayed”. “It is unclear why the National Civil Protection Emergency Plan was not activated earlier on 28th January,” he said.
He stated that “this is not the time to assign blame”, but rather “a time to demand effectiveness from the Government in its response to the population”. “The State cannot fail its citizens. State solidarity cannot be an empty phrase,” he concluded.
Source: DN / LUSA
