The President of the Republic said this Friday that he will not travel to Madeira while the fire that broke out on August 14 is active and a fight is underway to prevent it from becoming a “source of complications”.
“I will not go to Madeira while this process of responding to the fires is ongoing and until the representative of the Republic in Madeira speaks to the institutions and considers it appropriate for me to go there,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on the sidelines of a visit to the Feira do Livro do Porto, which opened its doors to the public this Friday.
Assuring that he was “monitoring the situation on this island from afar,” the head of state explained that while the fire continues, “there is no point in going there.”
He added: “I used to intervene during fire response operations, but Civil Protection said that politicians were undesirable, they were a source of complications until the process was completed, and so I began to respect that.”
The rural fire on the island of Madeira broke out on August 14 in the mountains of the municipality of Ribeira Brava and gradually spread to the municipalities of Câmara de Lobos, Ponta do Sol and through Pico Ruivo Santana.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System, the area of burnt areas exceeds 5,002 hectares.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also said that he is in constant contact with the representative of the Republic in Madeira, who reports to him on the evolution of the situation, and that about a week ago he spoke with the President of the Executive Power of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque.
Regarding the criticism leveled at Miguel Albuquerque, the President of the Republic declined to comment, since it would interfere with regional autonomy.
“I will not comment on this issue, since the discussion on this matter was about the implementation of regional autonomy, and the president of the republic should not interfere in this matter,” he clarified.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also declined to comment on Chechen President Andre Ventura’s proposal to hold a referendum on immigration.
“The President of the Republic is called upon to speak only at the end of the end, which is not the case now, because we are still, apparently, at the beginning of the beginning of the party debate. Therefore, I will not comment on this,” he explained.
The head of state, who visited 130 stands at the book fair accompanied by Porto Mayor Rui Moreira, also declined to comment on Leonor Beleza’s possible candidacy for Belem.
“What I am saying about party choice makes no sense,” he stressed.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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