The European Commission is “mobilising the support” Portugal requested today under the European Civil Protection Mechanism to help combat raging wildfires threatening multiple communities in the north and central regions.

Eva Hrncirova, spokeswoman for the European government, confirms that “Portugal has activated the European Civil Protection Mechanism, we are mobilising the support that the country has requested”.

Portugal asked the European Union for four Canadair aircraft this morning.

During a press conference at the headquarters of the National Civil Protection Authority, in Carnaxide, national civil protection commander, Mário Silvestre, said Portugal is the 7th country to activate the European mechanism this summer.

Authorities initially opted to use bilateral cooperation agreements with Spain and Morocco, with the latter providing two Canadair aircraft that will remain in Portugal until Monday. Spanish resources were used to help fight the fires in Castelo de Vide and Chaves, he said.

Silvestre justified the activation of the mechanism by the fact that weather conditions did not allow some fires to be put out during the night.

But former Iniciativa Liberal leader Rui Rocha has a slightly different interpretation for the time it took to come to this decision. Over social network ‘X’, he said the government chose not to activate the mechanism yesterday as it would have clashed with the PSD ‘political rentrée’ party (already widely slated). “It would have been even more embarrassing to party while asking for European help”, he explained. Thus “the arrival of help had to wait for the end of the party”.

But back to the most recent national civil protection briefing, Mário Silvestre said that fighting the fire in Lousã has proved impossible: flames travelled 30 kms in three hours, and now have a perimeter of 208 kms.