The national council of the League of Portuguese Firefighters (LBP) today admitted carrying out blockades if there is no action from the Government to respond to their demands by the national congress, in November.
To Lusa, after the meeting of the LBP national council, the president of the association, António Nunes, said that, in the event that at next month’s meeting it is not possible to “say that the problems are being resolved”, the congress “can deliberate, in extremis, a period of time (…) in which the firefighters will stop”.
“First in a perhaps symbolic way and, a little later, perhaps in a more extensive way”, added the head of the LBP, highlighting that “the request for patience so that there is space and time to take measures” by the Government or the Assembly of the Republic “is exhausted”. The official said that Congress will decide on the terms of a blockade, which could occur on a given day “for five, ten minutes or a quarter of an hour in which the firefighters do not leave the fire station” — safeguarding life or death situations.
The president of the LBP also admitted, given the firefighters’ discontent, street demonstrations near sovereign bodies or the deposition of helmets on the stairs. According to António Nunes, “if there are extreme measures that could harm communities and citizens, the responsibility lies not with the League, nor with corporations, nor with associations, nor with firefighters”, but rather with “the political agents who were unable to resolve them”.
The proposals were approved without negative votes and will now be combined into a synthesis that will be sent to the President of the Republic, the President of the Assembly of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Ministers of Internal Administration, Health, Economy and Territorial Cohesion, the Secretary of State for Civil Protection and the parliamentary groups “by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt”.
Among the proposals that will appear in this summary are the amendment of the State Budget for 2026 to increase the amount provided for firefighters, but also a request to review the amounts charged for the transport of non-urgent and urgent patients in view of the increase in the national minimum wage.
PEDRO NUNES
The amount foreseen in the State Budget for financing volunteer fire brigades is around 37 million euros in 2026, 2.2 million euros more than this year. The league defended the amount of 49.38 million euros as the minimum amount to be transferred next year to volunteer firefighters within the scope of this funding, the distribution of which is based on risk criteria and the activity of each corporation.
The State Budget for 2026 foresees a cut of 12 million euros for the transport of non-urgent patients, which the League disputes as firefighters were not consulted. Some of the proposals, said António Nunes, were already presented “more than a year or two ago” and were already included in the electoral programs of this and the previous Government. The president of the LBP added that there is dissatisfaction with the lack of a volunteer firefighter status with a work contract with humanitarian associations and with corresponding remuneration.
“Everyone complains that they are being overlooked in relation to what happened to other security forces and services and other professions in the health sector”, such as doctors and nurses, he pointed out. “Nurses are on strike, doctors are on strike, we take patients to hospitals that have an intervention time of twenty minutes and we are waiting 12 hours”, he stressed. António Nunes pointed out that after more than 100 days of the current Government, the demand is no longer from the organizations, but from the firefighters and that, as a volunteer, a firefighter “only appears at the fire station if he wants to”.
“What is at stake given the scale of the problem is so little that there is certainly capacity to solve the problem. We may be talking about a few million euros, but we are not talking about complete professionalization”, he added, estimating that this would have costs close to 2,500 million euros. Furthermore, the LBP wants autonomy in respect for Civil Protection, “as other agents have” — something that its president considered “reasonable” — and to define a firefighter statute, with rights and duties, “including a social statute for the firefighter.” At the same time, António Nunes also insisted that firefighters cannot be dependent on municipal councils.