Spain: Fires: Prime Minister wants a "national pact to address the climate emergency"

Ignoring "partisan struggles and ideological issues" and "focusing on scientific evidence": Faced with the scale of the devastation caused by the fires in Spain , Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on Sunday "a national pact to face the climate emergency."

It will be about "mitigating the effects of climate change and adapting to it," he explained during his visit to the fire coordination center in Ourense, in Galicia (northwestern tip), one of the regions most affected by forest fires this summer. He promised to have the foundations of this "pact" in place by September.

"Having fires of this magnitude, having "Dana" (name of the meteorological phenomenon that gave rise to the deadly floods that hit the Valencia region at the end of October 2024, Editor's note) like we experience in autumn or winter, shows that the climate emergency affecting the world is accelerating, worsening, especially in the Iberian Peninsula."

A “fire response”

"The fires will be extinguished, the reconstruction of all affected areas will be addressed, but I believe that we must also conduct a fundamental reflection, a strategy that anticipates a better response," assuring that we want to "do everything possible and even more" so that the victims of the fires return to "a normal life."

"Faced with the worsening and accelerating effects of climate change in our country," the socialist leader considered that this pact would concern "all public administrations, but not only. Parliamentary groups, the whole of civil society, science, businesses, unions, ultimately, the whole country." This pact would provide "resources to public agents, to civil servants, not only when the fire occurs, but also beforehand, so that they can respond much more effectively." "The response to the fires ravaging Spain is here," he affirmed during a press conference.

70,000 hectares burned

The fires have been at the heart of political debate in recent days in a country where their management is primarily the responsibility of the regions, but where the central government can be called upon to intervene when the situation worsens. The two main parties have constantly criticized each other, claiming they lack the resources and others for not having requested them.

The regional presidents of Galicia, Castile and León and Extremadura - the three regions most ravaged by the fire - all from the Popular Party (PP, conservative), have asked the government for additional reinforcements, with the sending of more soldiers.

A hundred Navy soldiers have been called in to support the Military Emergency Unit in the northwest of the country, the Ministry of Defense announced in a statement. More than 70,000 hectares have burned in Spain in recent days and more than 157,000 since the beginning of the year, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), figures that are constantly rising.

Pedro Sánchez must then travel to Castile and León, a region in mourning following the death of two young volunteers in their thirties who died trying to put out the fires.

Several thousand people remain evacuated there, according to emergency services, and authorities in Castile and León warned on Sunday of "high levels of particles" in the air, "a direct consequence of emissions caused by the numerous fires."