Prime Minister Luis Montenegro thanked the Civil Protection Service and the authorities for their willingness to monitor the earthquake that struck Sines this Monday and stressed the “calm response of the Portuguese people”.
“I am grateful for the readiness of the Civil Protection Service and the authorities to monitor the earthquake that occurred in Sines. I emphasize the calm reaction of the Portuguese people. Without panicking, we will continue to work on prevention and response to guarantee everyone’s safety,” Luis Montenegro wrote in a reaction published on the social network X.
The earthquake, measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale, was registered at 5:11 a.m. and had an epicentre 58 kilometres west of Sines, in the Setubal region, according to the Portuguese Institute of Earthquake and Atmosphere (IPMA).
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, also praised this Monday the “very fast” ability of the authorities to respond and the “very good coordination between the government and civil protection”, noting that “what had to work, worked” in the response to the earthquake.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Paulo Rangel, who was acting prime minister during Luís Montenegro’s vacation, at the Palacio de Belém in Lisbon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa detailed that the Civil Protection’s response capacity “was not faster because the information had to be verified” between 5:11 and 5:50 a.m.
Paulo Rangel believes that the earthquake was a real test of disaster response capabilities and stressed the need to talk about prevention strategies.
“We took advantage of the meeting (…) to consider it as a real test of our ability to respond in the event of a real disaster,” Paulo Rangel said in statements to journalists after the meeting at the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) in Carnaxide, Oeiras.
The Minister of State and Foreign Affairs and the acting Prime Minister felt that the seismic shock had made it possible to test “whether the means were ready”.