The Minister of Defense stated this Thursday that he contacted the mayor of Leiria as soon as he arrived in Portugal on January 29th and received no response, regretting that the mayor had decided to “belittle” those who helped him.
Nuno Melo was speaking during a hearing at the Assembly of the Republic, after being questioned by CDS-PP deputy João Almeida about whether or not he had contacted the mayor of Leiria, Gonçalo Lopes (Socialist Party), who even complained about the lack of military personnel on the ground during the bad weather that hit the country between the end of January and the beginning of February.
According to the minister, who showed deputies a ‘print’ of his conversation with Gonçalo Lopes on the social network ‘WhatsApp’, he stated that as soon as he arrived in Portugal on January 29th, coming from Turkey, the first phone call he made was to the mayor of Leiria.
“He didn’t answer me,” he said, adding that he sent a message and received no response.
Despite the “lack of response”, he continued, Nuno Melo added that the military left for the district.
Nuno Melo also said that “a lot of aid was refused”, as it was considered unnecessary.
The minister detailed that on the 1st and 2nd of February, the municipality refused military personnel to monitor generators due to theft.
On the 2nd, according to Nuno Melo, the “availability of aerial drones” was also refused and the following day “a field kitchen” and a reinforcement with more than 90 navy soldiers for different jobs that were then distributed to the municipalities of Marinha Grande, Pombal, Ourém and Batalha.
Recalling that the law allows municipalities to request direct assistance from military installations in their territory, Nuno Melo stated that the Leiria municipality requested only nine beds, which were delivered.
“That the president of the Municipal Council of Leiria was committed, he also did no more than he was supposed to. Now, that in order to praise his own efforts, he could not resist repeatedly belittling some of those who helped him the most, that doesn’t seem good. Because in big moments, small politics cannot prevail over what is most relevant”, he lamented.
Nuno Melo said he wanted to believe that “there would have been a justifying reason” why such contact was not successful, such as the lack of communications in that location due to the bad weather, but stated that he was only showing the “contacts that were made and the messages that were sent”.
At least 19 people have died in Portugal since January 28 following the passage of depressions Kristin, Leonardo and Marta, which also left several hundred injured, homeless and displaced. More than half of the deaths were recorded in recovery work.
The storms, which hit the mainland for around three weeks, caused the total or partial destruction of thousands of homes, businesses and equipment, the fall of trees and structures, the cutting of energy, water and communications, floods and floods, with losses worth billions of euros.
The Centro, Lisbon and Vale do Tejo and Alentejo regions were the most affected.
