“What I mainly wanted to say to the Portuguese is that on the State's part, we are all motivated and we are all in the spirit of articulation and coordination to reduce the risks. But it is true that this effort also needs each citizen and the push of each community”, stated Luís Montenegro.

The prime minister traveled to Mação yesterday in the district of Santarém, to preside over the meeting of the Coordination Council of the Agency for the Integrated Management of Rural Fires (AGIF).

At the end, Montenegro made a statement to journalists, where he made “a very direct appeal to the Portuguese” so that “they can adopt behaviors that reduce risks” and that, in this way, “they can contribute to having a country that does not has to be confronted every year with the scourge of rural fires and the consequences they often bring”.

According to the head of the Government, the path taken in recent years “has been positive” and, above all, “the mobilization of various State departments that contribute to the existence of “more preventive policies”.

However, he highlighted that at the same time, there were contributions to instill in populations greater motivation for practices that reduce the risk of having more incidents and negative repercussions.

Luís Montenegro understands that the principle of articulation and coordination is fundamental for preventing and combating rural fires.

“We are in fact all on the same side. We are the ones who perform government functions and this agency [AGIF], whose work in recent years was precisely to develop an action plan, with goals that were designed until 2030 and which we will revisit in due course”, he stressed.

For the prime minister, the last year “was a good year”.

“We hope that this year we can have a performance that does not bring worse news than what we had last year. On the contrary, however, we need to be aware that to achieve this objective we cannot let our guard down nor reduce everything we can do to prevent and then, naturally, combat when occurrences come and they will come. It’s inevitable,” he summarised.

Montenegro also left a word with the investigating authorities. “In recent years, they were able to identify many of those responsible for the ignitions and provide proof that in court sentenced some to very heavy sentences”, he said.

For the Prime Minister, this contributed “as an instrument to reduce occurrences and to dissuade and give a very strong image of punishment that is deserved for those who offend people and property in such an inhumane way as those who give rise to the criminal occurrence of rural fires.”