The announcement was made by the party’s president, André Ventura, at a press conference at Chega’s national headquarters in Lisbon, insisting on the need for replacements in the leadership of the National Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), namely its president, José Duarte da Costa.

“The civil protection system in Portugal has failed again. It seems clear that this civil protection system, in its organizational model, in its connection with the various fire departments, in its model of implementation in the territory, in its model of organizing aid and combat resources, has failed significantly and with great impact”, criticized the Chega leader.

The request was submitted, Ventura explained, and the party's goal is for this debate to take place on Thursday before the plenary session scheduled for the afternoon of that day.

The Government can present any member of the executive for the debate, but André Ventura explained that Chega wants the Minister of Internal Administration, Margarida Blasco, to provide clarifications to the MPs and that he has already initiated contacts with the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Pedro Duarte, to ensure the presence of the person responsible for Civil Protection.

André Ventura wants this to be a debate “about everything that went wrong in relation to the fires”, about what can be done to “prevent them from happening again”, stating that failures that had already been the subject of “political promises that they would not happen again” were again recorded.

“Parliament must, therefore, demand these responsibilities from the Government regarding the reorganisation of these services. But also in the redefinition of the civil protection model itself and in the debate about what we can change and what we need to do now, to ensure that either this year or next we do not have a new fire drama”, he argued.

The president of Chega also said that he intends to find out "whether or not there were more serious failures" than those indicated and to understand the veracity of the reports from the country's mayors about the alleged unavailability of the minister to be contacted during the fires - which has already been denied by the government official herself.