In the procedural hearing of the Ministry of Justice team that took place in parliament, Minister Rita Alarcão Júdice presented data from the Judicial Police (PJ) on arrested arsonists.

The minister was responding to MP Fabian Figueiredo, from the Left Bloc, about the “alleged interests that fly over the fires” in Portugal, in reference to the statements made by the Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro, following the major fires in the north and centre regions.

The minister said that in September, 24 people had been arrested due to “strong evidence” of having caused forest and non-forest fires, and that 80% were in preventive detention, with detainees in various regions of the country.

“What is being done is an in-depth investigation into the cases of those who allegedly started these fires and to understand whether there is a pattern that would prompt new investigations. We cannot be satisfied with the mere arrest, because we have to understand whether there is a pattern”, said the minister, stating that she could not say anything more about the matters under criminal investigation.

She added that the inclusion of the PSP in the teams investigating the fires is being studied and that the two teams operating in the north and centre may be joined by a third in the south, where there is still no dedicated team.

“She responded with data on arson, which is a phenomenon that needs to be addressed and combated, based on scientific knowledge, avoiding criminal populism, which is what happened”, commented the Bloco MP.

The parliamentarian was referring to Montenegro's statements, which alleged interests in the fires, which have since been denied by specialist investigators from the PJ.

When asked by Livre about the legal challenge to the terms of the competition to recruit 570 new judicial officers, which opened on 10 September, the minister reiterated that the terms are the same as those applied in the internal competition and that they were not questioned by the Union of Judicial Officers (SOJ), which filed the lawsuit, adding that unlike the previous competition, with just over 100 positions and for which there were only five candidates, this one already has 1,700 candidates.

“Despite this desire to create problems in a solution that is urgent, we have to deal with it”, said the minister about the legal action.