"I follow what the Order of Engineers says about alarmism not making sense in terms of a pessimistic view regarding the effects of a possible earthquake on the framework of seismic regions in our country", said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

Speaking to journalists, the head of state said that "only after listening to the specialists will it be seen exactly, and without scaremongering (...), which issues can occur precisely in a specific situation or in a more general way".

Hospital collapses

Questioned about the project for the future Hospital of Lisbon Oriental presenting “serious flaws”, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa assured that the Government “is following up” on the matter.

On Monday, in an interview with TVI/CNN, a professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, Mário Lopes, said that "the main hospitals in Lisbon and in the south of Portugal will collapse in the next big earthquake" and that "the future central hospital of Lisbon suffers from a historic design error".

In an interview with Antena 1, the chairman of the Order of Engineers, Fernando Almeida Santos, explained that if the project for the new hospital "does not have maximum protection, it is because it does not need it".

"As for older buildings such as the large hospitals in Lisbon and Porto, Fernando Almeida Santos recalls that there are unpredictable factors that do not allow anticipating what would happen in the event of an earthquake".