After eight months in office, Maria Lúcia Amaral could not resist the chorus of criticism and several requests for her resignation.
The constitutionalist Maria Lucia Amaral This Tuesday, she resigned from her position as Minister of Internal Affairs after a wave of criticism of the way she acted and managed the response to the Kristin depression that hit the country a fortnight ago.
Maria Lúcia Amaral was at the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) on the afternoon of January 28th with the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, and also with the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, but did not make any statement, nor did she go to the affected locations.
Two days later, he went to ANEPC for a meeting, but was not present at the press conference, preferring to make a statement to journalists.
Asked about her absence in managing the crisis, she stated that “there is a lot of work that is done in a context of invisibility, in the office”.
“We have information, reflection, planning, and above all coordination work”, he added.
On that day, and faced with criticism of her absence on the ground, the minister traveled to Leiria and, faced with the description of the devastation that was being carried out by the mayor, she stated: “All this presupposes a “.
Maria Lúcia Amaral also only convened the National Civil and Protection Commission – an interministerial body responsible for the political coordination of civil protection in Portugal – five days after the end of the depression. It was only at this meeting that the National Civil Protection Emergency Plan was activated, which allows the creation of reinforced, integrated and nationwide coordination mechanisms.
She also visited Alvaiázere, one of the municipalities affected by the depression, and when asked what had failed in the Government’s response, she assumed she did not know.
At the beginning of August, at a press conference at ANEPC headquarters, journalists tried to ask the minister questions, but Maria Lúcia Amaral refused to answer and just said: “Let’s go”.
“Two months ago I took an oath. It was an oath of loyalty. I will not betray the oath of loyalty two months later by submitting my resignation or thinking about resigning”, he said at the time.
Another of the phrases that marked Maria Lúcia Amaral’s tenure as Minister of Internal Administration was in December, when in Parliament, referring to the queues at Lisbon airport, she said that the problem was that one of the employees housed in the general secretariat of MAI ““.
The resigning minister leaves office without having implemented the major measures announced for the area, namely the civil protection reform, which was promised to be presented at the end of 2025, and the changes to SIRESP.
Maria Lúcia Amaral’s action has also been criticized by PSP unions and GNR associations, who accuse her of not complying with the agreement signed in 2024, with even the largest police union abandoning negotiations in December.
Maria Lúcia Amaral arrived at MAI after eight years as Ombudsman, not having finished her second term.
The first woman to head the Ombudsman’s Office, Maria Lúcia Amaral was elected by the Assembly of the Republic to the Constitutional Court in 2007 and five years later she became vice-president of Palácio Ratton, a position she held until 2016.
Kristin, Leonardo and Marta caused 15 deaths, destroyed homes and businesses and left cities almost submerged
Fifteen people in Portugal since January 28 following the passage of depressions Kristin, Leonardo and Marta, which also caused many hundreds of injuries and displacement.
The total or partial destruction of homes, businesses and equipment, the fall of trees and structures, the closure of roads, schools and transport services, and the cut of energy, water and communications, floods and floods are the main material consequences of the storm.
The Centro, Lisbon and Vale do Tejo and Alentejo regions are the most affected.
