Before the start of the debate on the Supplementary Budget in general, the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, took the floor to say that "17 June, 2017 can no longer be repeated", the day when Pedrógão Grande started a forest fire, which later spread to neighbouring municipalities of Castanheira de Pera, Figueiró dos Vinhos, Ansião, Sertã, Pampilhosa da Serra and Penela, which killed 66 people and injured 254 people.
"17 June, 2017 will go down in history as the day that set off what was the deadliest forest fire ever in Portugal, a tragedy whose dimension has no parallel in our recent history", he lamented.
For Ferro Rodrigues, to pay tribute to those and those who died in 2017 is above all to ensure that one does not "watch a tragedy with this dimension" again.
"It is, therefore, in memory of the victims of forest fires that I ask everyone to observe a minute's silence", he appealed, on a day when he decided that the flag of parliament is half-mast in memory of the victims of the forest fires of three years ago in Pedrógão Grande.
According to Ferro Rodrigues, "the Assembly of the Republic decided to dedicate this day in evoking the memory of the men, women and children who lost their lives in 2017, but equally of all and of all who throughout our history have succumbed to the scourge of forest fires in Portugal".
"Parliament, from the first moment, tried to understand, in all its contours, obtaining in an impartial and credible way the possible clarifications. It was like this with the functioning of independent technical commissions, it is like this with the functioning of the eventual commission of inquiry, that at its time will reach its conclusions", he praised.