Montenegro calls for more support for volunteer firefighters and deplores austerity

This Friday, the PSD leader asked for more support from volunteer firefighters, the “master beam” of all firefighting, and accused the government of encouraging austerity measures, leading to several strikes.

“The fire department is very skeptical about how the government has treated it. There are obvious problems that are not being solved, especially in terms of funding. The Ministry of Health still owes a lot to humanitarian associations of firefighters, even the costs associated with last year’s wildfires are still not fully paid. There are delays that cause great difficulties,” said the PSD President during a visit to Pinal de Leiria in Marinha Grande.

For Montenegro, it is not enough to create more rapid response teams. “Especially because this cannot mean a completely secondary role for the volunteer fire sector, because they are actually the main beam of the entire combat system. They cannot be in a subordinate position, often with the difficulties that are imposed by government inaction, namely in payments that are late and deprive corporations of operational capacity,” he stressed.

After meeting with the mayor of Marinha Grande, Aurelio Ferreira (independent movement +MPM), the PSD leader saw this as another “opportunity to remind the government that there are commitments made in 2017 that need to be fulfilled.”

“It is necessary to have a more active, more intense position so that this forest can be revived and that there is economic use, public use, reconciliation of forestry activities as an economic activity with the preservation of the environment and biodiversity, and, above all, that tragedies like those that occurred in 2017 could have been prevented in the future,” he said.

Luis Montenegro demanded that the government not only warn of the danger of fires to which Portugal is exposed due to high temperatures and drought. “It’s good that the Minister of the Interior knows, but it’s bad that he only knows and thinks about the problem. The government and the minister are required to present solutions, to reassure the population with concrete actions. which prevent the occurrence of this kind of natural disasters,” he said.

Faced with a nurses’ strike taking place this Friday involving several dozen nurses at the Ministry of Health in Lisbon to protest “deteriorating working conditions,” Montenegro said the reality of the class “extends a little to the entire public administration.”

In view of what is happening to the various professional classes, the SDP president said that “nearly eight years later” the government proclaimed “respect for public administration, restoration of revenues, the prime minister’s call to turn the page of austerity,” reality is austerity associated with loss of purchasing power, reduced efficiency of services, ever-increasing taxes, record after record in tax collection.”

“This is a reality that, of course, will cause more controversy, more claims. And strikes are a consequence of this,” he concluded.