Lisbon, April 24, 2026 (Lusa) – The minister of cabinet affairs said on Thursday that the government lacked specific political coordination and crisis response planning during the blackout on 28 April 2025, but rejected claims that it underestimated the incident's severity.
During the final hearing of the parliamentary working group on the blackout, held by the Environment and Energy Committee, António Leitão Amaro said that the government had learnt lessons from the power failure and had since implemented changes to procedures, technical means, and response planning.
He said that the political reaction began within minutes of the power cut at 11:33 a.m, through contacts between the government and major energy companies and defended the initial communication, stating that authorities used the format considered most resilient in that context.
However, he acknowledged communication weaknesses during the blackout. "We know that the resilience of communication networks, even radio channels, was limited and vulnerable," he said and identified the reinforcement of these networks as a key area in the PTRR (Portugal Transformation, Recovery and Resilience), which faces approval next Tuesday, 28 April.
The blackout revealed that the government lacked the technical means for all members to communicate immediately via the SIRESP network (Integrated System for Emergency and Security Networks).
Amaro said that authorities have since corrected this by providing terminals to government members.
Regarding the lessons learnt from the episode, he said: "Did we learn? We did. Did we learn that we needed to improve? We did. Was it necessary to plan communication, the communication circuit, and the steps to take? Yes."
Following this experience, the government created Corgov, the Government Operations Centre. This structure and procedural manual for political coordination and communication during crises ensures the state is now better prepared for similar occurrences, he said.
Nevertheless, he rejected the idea that the government downgraded the risk level and that the initial response could not have been faster, though he said it would be less improvised today.
"We now have Corgov, which means the government's political coordination and communication is much more planned and less improvised," he said.
During the hearing, the minister insisted that the government prioritised the functioning of critical infrastructure, particularly hospitals, and that authorities considered several alternatives to guarantee fuel for healthcare units in the Lisbon area.
Recalling that period, he said: "Hearing the risk scenario involved if everything failed was probably the most dramatic moment of my political life."
In one of the most emotive parts of the hearing, he referred to the risk of supply failure in hospital units with newborns and patients dependent on electrical support. "In those places, there were children whose lives, babies, depended on the electricity supply to live, because they live in incubators with assisted ventilation," he said.
He admitted the public suffered losses but said that the failure did not originate in Portugal. "Of course, the Portuguese people were harmed. There were people who could not do what they wanted to be doing, activities that could not happen in the same way, and lives that were disrupted. That is an injury," he said, reinforcing that the cause of the blackout was in Spain, not Portugal.
António Leitão Amaro summarised the government's position and the post-crisis measures taken: "This time it went well. But everything was not in place for it to go well. And we learnt lessons. We improved several things."
Thursday's hearing was the last for the working group, which has now begun preparing its final report.
SCR/RYOL // ADB.
Lusa
