“The country has never cut so much red tape,” said Luís Montenegro, speaking at the fortnightly debate in parliament, the first since the Kristin, Leonardo and Marta storms, which caused 18 deaths in Portugal and also left many hundreds injured and homeless.

The parliamentary debate was initially scheduled for last Wednesday, 11 February, but the announcement the night before of the resignation of the Minister of Home Affairs, Maria Lúcia Amaral, whose duties were temporarily assumed by the Prime Minister, led to its postponement.