Portugal’s interior minister has resigned after coming under fire over her handling of the flood response in recent weeks, the presidency announced late on Tuesday.
Maria Lucia Amaral “felt that she did not have the personal and political conditions necessary to carry out her duties,” a statement said.
Her position will be temporarily filled by centre-right Prime Minister Luís Montenegro.
Montenegro’s government has come under fire for its response to the two weeks of storms and fierce gales that killed at least seven people and caused an estimated €4 billion in damage.
“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 the press after the announcement.
The Iberian Peninsula has seen increasingly drawn-out and intense bouts of extreme weather, such as downpours and heatwaves, which scientists have long linked to human activity.
New satellite image show extent of flooding
Satellite images released by the European Space Agency (ESA) have captured the intensity of the rainfall over the Iberian Peninsula during three strong winter storms.
Also visible is the extent of the flooding that followed in Portugal’s Tagus river basin.
The ESA said in a statement released on Tuesday that storms Kristin, Leonardo and Marta hit Portugal, Spain and North Africa hard in early 2026, causing widespread flooding.
Thousands of people had to leave their homes across the country, with 3,000 people being evacuated in Coimbra on Tuesday night alone due to the possibility of the Mondego river dykes collapsing.
In Portugal, the agency particularly highlighted images showing the city of Alcácer do Sal and the Tagus river basin, areas particularly affected by the rains.
The Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite captured the extent of the flooding around the River Tagus and its catchment area, north-east of Lisbon, with the flooded areas in red.
The next image was taken on 7 February and superimposed on an image from 27 December, and it can be seen that the water levels have risen.
The ESA also released an image of the Iberian Peninsula showing rainfall accumulation between 1-7 February, using data from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission.
The GPM mission consists of an international network of satellites that provides global observations of rain and snow, according to the ESA.
Portugal is under a state of emergency until mid-February due to unprecedented levels of rain and flooding.
Additional sources • AFP