Ventura resigns as Minister of Internal Administration

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The president of Chega, André Ventura, asked on Sunday for the resignation of the Minister of Internal Administration, Maria Lúcia Amaral, and announced that he will call the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, “urgently to the Assembly of the Republic”.

"Chega has reached its limit and Chega will urgently call the Assembly of the Republic and will ask the Prime Minister to dismiss the Minister of Internal Administration ," said the Chega leader on Sunday, in statements to Sic Notícias .

André Ventura considered that Luís Montenegro "doesn't understand that he can't have a minister who ignores what's happening, leaves the mayors alone and who can say 'let's go', not caring about the questions they're asking her about the people's suffering."

Referring to the statements made on Sunday by the Minister of Internal Administration at the headquarters of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), André Ventura said that the “country was astonished” by the fact that Maria Lúcia Amaral understood that “she does not have to provide any clarification”.

"A country stops to listen to a Minister of Internal Affairs about what she has to say, how we are going to help people who are fighting the fire alone, without any support, and in other cases firefighters who are deployed to fight the fire, and the minister feels that she is not responding to anything," he stressed.

The Chega leader argued that the country needs a minister who "is on the ground and working alongside the operational staff." Regarding the call from the Socialist Party's secretary-general, José Luís Carneiro, for the prime minister to convene the National Civil Protection Commission, André Ventura considered that this "won't solve anything" and that it must be "a serious government and a serious prime minister who will solve some of these problems."

The Minister of Internal Administration extended the state of alert on Sunday until midnight on Tuesday due to the heightened fire risk. During her remarks at ANEPC headquarters, the minister refused to answer questions from journalists and left the room before the usual Civil Protection update.

Mainland Portugal has been affected by multiple rural fires since July, particularly in the North and Central regions, amid high temperatures that led to the declaration of a state of alert on August 2. The fires resulted in two deaths, including a firefighter, and several injuries, most of which were not serious. They also completely or partially destroyed primary and secondary homes, as well as agricultural and livestock farms and forestry.

In response, Portugal activated the European Civil Protection Mechanism, under which two Fire Boss aircraft are expected to arrive this Monday to reinforce firefighting efforts. According to provisional official data, 172,000 hectares had burned in the country by August 17, more than the area burned in the entire year of 2024 .

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