State and essential services showed their capacity to respond

"Despite all the adversities of an unprecedented crisis, the essential services were up and running and the State showed it has the capacity to respond", claimed Prime Minister Luís Montenegro in a statement at the end of the Council of Ministers that met as of the end of the morning to take measures to respond to the blackout that hit the mainland at 11:30 am.

Claiming that this "was and still is a serious, unprecedented, and unexpected" situation, he noted that he set up a crisis office immediately and held a Council of Ministers while monitoring the situation at all times.

"The Council of Minister decreed an energy crisis, which enabled measures to allocate supply to essential services to maintain things operational, he stated.

Electricity supply to all critical, priority, and essential services and entities was assessed and decided on throughout the day, in the field of health, governing bodies, security and law enforcement, telecommunications, transportation, justice, national media outlets, food distribution, national scientific and technological system entities, and electronic payment system.

"We instructed the fuel distributors to ensure supply to the critical and essential services and by doing so ensuring the generators could be up and running for these services to continue their activity", he said.

Luís Montenegro recalled that passengers stuck in the Lisbon and Porto underground trines were swiftly removed and that "free transportation was offered" to cross the Tagus and night flights were authorised.

"We also told pre-schools and junior schools that children should remain at school until their parents’ arrival", he said.

As for electricity, the Prime Ministers stated it was possible "to anticipate the times" to reestablish the service provided by the grid supplier REN and that only Beira Baixa, Alentejo, and Setúbal had areas without lighting. "In the rest of the country there is electricity but the connection to the end consumer needs to be adjusted", he cautioned.

Luís Montenegro praised the "understanding, serenity and civic sense" of the Portuguese people and showed his appreciation for the work done by law enforcement and the various State services that operated during the blackout.

"On behalf of the Government, I ask that you maintain that serenity and full respect for order and the guidelines issued by law enforcement until the situation is fully solved", he said.

The Prime Minister also claimed to have been "in permanent touch" with the President, to have spoken to the leader of the opposition party, the President of the European Commission, the President of the European Council, and the Head of the Spanish Government, thanking them "for their collaboration and exchange of information".

"We weren’t able to hold the meeting we wanted to in Parliament because we were unable to get in touch with the parliamentary representatives", he concluded.