Seguro praises storm Charles response as government measures draw party criticism

Presidential praise for the response

President António José Seguro said the authorities prepared well for storm Charles, which crossed mainland Portugal on Wednesday, 11 November. Speaking on the sidelines of the CNN Portugal International Summit at the Estoril Congress Centre in Cascais, he said protecting people came first, even if some measures went too far. He said he had followed the situation from the Belém Palace in Lisbon, in contact with Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, the regional president of Madeira, the Republic's representative in Madeira and municipal mayors. He said more than 1,600 incidents had been recorded across the mainland and Madeira, and he thanked citizens and workers who kept essential services running.

“The essential thing is to protect people, and if there are excesses in protecting people, then let people be protected.”

Seguro said the worst had not happened and called that the big news to celebrate, while stressing that lessons should be drawn for better preparation. He said there were no human casualties but some material damage that still had to be resolved. Asked to assess the PSD/CDS-PP government, he declined and left that judgement to journalists and evaluators.

Alert and forecast revisions

The government announced the state of alert on Tuesday, 10 November. The Internal Administration minister had called Wednesday a day of absolute exception and said staying at home was the best course because the risk was very great. On Tuesday, forecasts pointed to gusts of up to 160 km/h in the Greater Lisbon area, and IPMA issued a red wind warning for districts south of Leiria. The institute said that at 18:00 on Tuesday, after the alert had been declared, models had moved the track further south and reduced the likelihood of the most severe scenarios without ruling them out. From the morning of Wednesday, 11 November, IPMA began lowering wind warnings in several districts, but kept a red warning, the most serious level, in some mainland districts because forecast rainfall totals remained high. In a communiqué issued on Thursday, 12 November, the institute set out the technical basis for its warnings.

Criticism from business and parties

Gustavo Paulo Duarte, president of the Confederação do Comércio e Serviços de Portugal (CCP), was among the first to criticise the government. He argued that prevention cannot mean stopping the country or treating every citizen as unable to look after themselves.

“Prevention is mandatory, and no one forgets what storm Kristin cost us in January. But prevention cannot mean stopping the country.”

Artur Costa, director of the Civil Protection Department at Universidade Lusófona do Porto, told Público he doubted that equal measures for the whole country were justified, since Tuesday's forecasts already pointed to greater intensity in the Centre and South. He suggested differentiating measures at least from Aveiro northward. Bragança district, where no effects of the depression were forecast, was also covered. On the opposition side, PS leader José Luís Carneiro said the government had shown a lack of balance, while Chega's André Ventura said there was an intention to exaggerate. Assembly president José Pedro Aguiar-Branco said the preventive dimension was technically advisable.

“Better to prevent than to remedy; this approach was better than the one used during storm Kristin.”

Context and economic cost

An economist estimated that the cost to the economy could reach 200 million euros, while noting that not all of the losses would be permanent. Storm Charles was the first test this autumn and winter for minister Luís Neves, after the storms at the start of the year brought down the previous minister. Seguro said he had raised the need for preparedness during the Open Presidency visit to the Centre region in April. He said extreme weather would keep occurring and that lessons had to be drawn from every event.