Chega Invokes Rare Parliamentary Power to Probe Portugal’s Wildfire Spending

If you have lived through even one Portuguese summer, you already know the uneasy ritual: the mercury climbs, the eucalyptus cracks, and television screens fill with orange skylines. This year that collective anxiety is moving from the hillsides into Parliament, after the right-wing Chega party confirmed it will invoke a constitutional shortcut to open a formal investigation into how Portugal fights – and perhaps profits from – the country’s catastrophic rural fires.

A seasonal fear that shapes daily life

A newcomer might be surprised at how often residents of central and northern Portugal glance at the wind forecast before planning a weekend trip. The memory of 2017’s firestorms, which killed 116 people and scorched 500,000 ha, still lingers. Insurance premiums, housing choices, even language-school field trips are influenced by the possibility of sudden evacuations. For foreigners buying property in the interior, the question of who controls fire-prevention budgets is therefore not an abstraction but a matter of personal safety and real-estate value.

Chega picks an explosive battleground

Chega, the anti-establishment party led by André Ventura, holds 60 of the 230 seats in the Assembleia da República. That is crucial because a little-known rule allows one-fifth of deputies to demand a parliamentary inquiry without any vote. By filing what is called a requerimento potestativo, Chega can force the chamber to create a Commission of Inquiry as soon as the notice is printed in the daily record – likely before the end of September. It is the first time this legislature that the mechanism has been deployed, and it instantly vaults the party from noisy critic to agenda-setter.

Follow the money – that is the brief

Ventura says the panel will scrutinise the entire chain of decisions since 2017: why Portugal still rents Canadair aircraft instead of buying its own fleet; how spending on fire prevention ballooned from €143 M to €638 M in seven years; and whether a "fire mafia" profits from timber sales and emergency contracts. Particular attention will fall on Operação Torre de Controlo, an ongoing police probe into alleged bid-rigging in aerial-firefighting tenders. Chega also wants to outlaw the trade in charred wood, claiming it creates perverse incentives to let forests burn before harvest.

Mainstream parties push back but tread carefully

The centre-right PSD and the centre-left PS – usually arch-rivals – have closed ranks, calling the inquiry "useless" and "partisan" while proposing instead a technical commission chosen by academics and former fire chiefs. Their rare embrace is easy fodder for Chega’s narrative of a protective "centrão" shielding itself from scrutiny. The smaller Bloco de Esquerda plans its own, narrower inquiry on coordination failures during the 2025 fire season, whereas Iniciativa Liberal has not yet staked a clear position. The manoeuvring underscores how climate-related crises are becoming a proxy battlefield for Portugal’s broader ideological clashes.

Why expats should keep an eye on the hearings

Beyond the politics, the committee’s witness list – expected to include former interior ministers, regional mayors and aviation contractors – may unearth data valuable to anyone insuring property or investing in tourism. Changes in zoning laws, reforestation incentives, or aerial-support contracts could flow directly from its findings. If you own a holiday home near a pine forest, or run a surf camp that depends on smoke-free skies, the testimony could foreshadow next summer’s risk map.

A primer on Portugal’s inquiry rules

For readers unfamiliar with the fine print: parliamentary inquiries here enjoy quasi-judicial powers. Witnesses testify under oath; documents can be seized; proceedings are televised on the public channel ARtv. However, the commission cannot indict – it can only recommend the Public Prosecutor take up a case. Each deputy may sign only one such compulsory inquiry per session, so Chega is spending its single strongest procedural card on the fire dossier. Previous minorities used the same clause to probe bank collapses (2014) and pandemic procurement (2021), often shifting public opinion even when criminal charges never followed.

Could this reshape forest policy?

Should the inquiry expose systemic profiteering, the government of the day – whether Socialist or Social Democrat – will face pressure to rethink the economic model of its forestry sector. Possible outcomes include national ownership of water-bombing aircraft, stricter limits on eucalyptus plantations, and a ban on post-fire timber sales. For expatriates looking to build eco-tourism ventures or buy rural land, any of those shifts could change licensing costs and insurance rules overnight.

For now, the only certainty is that the debate over Portugal’s fires will no longer be confined to late-night talk shows or scorched valleys. It is moving to a tiled parliamentary hearing room in Lisbon, and the repercussions could be felt in every village that dreads the siren sound of summer.