Quarteira, Portugal, Aug. 15, 2025 (Lusa) - The prime minister said on Thursday that the government was acting discreetly in fighting the fires, but “very closely” and trying to be “as effective as possible,” and scheduled an assessment for later.
In a speech at the Festa do Pontal, on the Calçadão da Quarteira in the Algarve, Luís Montenegro said that he keeps his compatriots who are “facing a scourge” in mind, referring to the forest fires, which he attributed to “difficult and adverse” weather conditions, and often to “some carelessness and negligence”, and, in other cases, to “criminal conduct”.
“We are making every effort to ensure everyone receives support, making every effort to mobilise all the resources we have to safeguard, first and foremost, the lives and health of all our compatriots, and to safeguard their heritage and what belongs to all of us: our natural heritage,” he assured.
Montenegro said he was doing so by “monitoring the situation at all times” and counting on “the efforts of many women and men: firefighters, civil protection, the GNR, forest rangers, the armed forces, all security forces, local authorities” and “many anonymous citizens”.
“We are doing this perhaps discreetly, but believe me, we are very close and trying to be as effective and efficient as possible. We are doing this using everything possible, after having prepared in terms of prevention and equipping the entire system to fight the fires,” he said.
Montenegro stressed, however, that he planned to assess the firefighting efforts another day, because the country is “in the midst of a war and it is not in the middle of a war” that such a discussion should take place.
“Let’s first win the war, save the people, our heritage, our country, and we will be here to do even better in the future,” he said.
Luís Montenegro then commended the media coverage of the fires, highlighting that television stations are “filling half their screens with flames and the other half with the Festa do Pontal”, and he stressed that he respects freedom of expression, editorial and journalistic freedom.
“People should respect these legitimate criteria, just as they respect a political party’s legitimate right to speak to its people, meet with its political family, and analyse the state of the country,” he said, anticipating constructive feedback on holding the Festa do Pontal while the country remains on alert.
Montenegro assured that the PSD has a “sense of responsibility” and said that the Festa do Pontal is a “political gathering, of freedom, freedom of expression and to talk about the country”, about what the government has been doing and wants to do “on behalf of everyone”.
“And it is possible for us to do this while we are doing everything we can to help those who are suffering,” he said.
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