Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa attends a debate of a no-confidence motion in Lisbon, Portugal on Oct. 24, 2017. The Portuguese government survived a vote of no confidence over forest fires in parliament on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)
LISBON, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Portuguese government survived a vote of no confidence over forest fires in parliament on Tuesday.
The motion was brought about by the center-right Central Social Democratic-Popular Party (CDS-PP) following the death of more than 100 people in forest fires in four months.
For the motion to pass, the CDS-PP needed a parliamentary majority, meaning the support of at least 116 of 230 lawmakers. The government would then have fallen.
In the event, 122 lawmakers backed the Socialist Party government in a vote held after a 3-hour parliamentary debate.
Forest fires on Oct.15 raged through northern and central Portugal, killing 45 and devastating 500,000 hectares of land. In June, 64 people perished in a conflagration in the Pedrogao Grande area of central Portugal.
The CDS-PP claimed the motion was "an act of political indignation" brought on behalf of the Portuguese people. Introducing the bill, Assuncao Cristas, leader of the CDS-PP, said "the government had failed" due to "profound incompetence and mismanagement at the political and operational level."
Prime Minister Antonio Costa responded by promising reform to forestry policy, but calling for consensus. "Deep reform can only come through institutional cooperation and the best of scientific knowledge," he said.
Catarina Martins, leader of the Left Bloc (BE), which supported the government, called the motion "obscene" in reference to the fact that Cristas, as Minister for the Environment in the previous government, removed restrictions on eucalyptus planting. Eucalyptus trees are highly flammable and their prevalence was a major factor in both tragedies.
The Portuguese Social Democrat Party (PSD) voted with the CDS-PP. Luis Montenegro of the PSD said the government "deserved censure" for its handling of the crisis.
