Portugal’s interior minister, Maria Lucia Amaral, has resigned following widespread criticism of the government’s handling of severe storms that have battered the Iberian nation in recent weeks, the presidency announced on Tuesday.
Amaral “felt that she did not have the personal and political conditions necessary to carry out her duties,” the presidency said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Her role will be temporarily assumed by centre-right Prime Minister Luis Montenegro.
Montenegro’s administration has faced scrutiny for its response to two weeks of storms and fierce gales that have claimed at least seven lives and caused estimated damage of around four billion euros ($4.7 billion).
“The resignation of the interior minister is proof that the government has failed in its response to this emergency,” Jose Luis Carneiro, Secretary-General of the opposition Socialist Party, told Portuguese media shortly after the announcement.
The Iberian Peninsula has experienced increasingly prolonged and intense bouts of extreme weather, including heavy rain and heatwaves, which scientists have long attributed to human-driven climate change and the burning of fossil fuels.
