To this confrontation is added the opposition, with the Popular Party and Vox at the head, in the meantime some of the government partners, such as adding and Esquerra Republicana, take distance in full togeo of claims for advanced general elections that are marked by corruption scandals and a clear decline in the popularity of the head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez.
According to the Greenpeace environmental organization, “heat waves make the mountain have water stress and be more vulnerable to fires” so it deduces that 96% of the accidents are caused by the human being: 68.79% due to negligence and 24% at intentionality.
Negligence includes unusual agricultural burnings, bonfires or poorly turned off, while intentional fires can be for revenge or to facilitate hunting.
“The lack of government management and excess dry and flammable vegetation aggravates the situation, creating situations conducive to large and devastating fires,” said the Americas the Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Lleida, in Catalonia, Spain, Ferran Espaser.
Greenpeace emphasizes the depopulation and abandonment of agricultural and livestock activity, which generates a large accumulation of dry vegetation that acts as a fuel for fires.
Chronology
Between the months of July and August, a heat wave reached the Iberian Peninsula, which, in addition to high temperatures, caused a decrease in relative humidity and a large increase in fire risk.
In this way, regions such as Castilla y León, Extremadura, Andalusia and Galicia were scenarios of great forest fires.
Meanwhile, Sánchez, who was on vacation in the Canary Islands, said that his government team attended the regional authorities to combat fires with firefighters, equipment and strategies, but delayed, at least in public, 10 days to appeal in Galicia and then León.
Then, the president of the Spanish Government raised the idea of “a State pact against climate change”, in which all parties, local authorities and political parties without exceptions, work together to create exceptional measures that fight and avoid forest accidents.
We can even, the once ally of Sánchez in the time of Pablo Iglesias, called “the government’s proposal” because “it has no intention of doing anything” and that “the only thing that happens is that they have been overwhelmed by the political situation and are looking for a holder” in the press.
Quickly, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the opposition Popular Party, crossed out the idea of Sánchez “to gain time” because “it does not serve to recover the lost or to end the flames”, and proposed its own “Comprehensive Plan for Help, Recovery and Prevention for the Rural and Forestry Environment”, with 50 measures that would have been prepared “from the analysis of the reasons and consequences fires ”.
As expected, Feijóo’s plan was rejected by Sánchez and his government partners for “putting his partisan strategy before the collective interest in tragedy management.”
Even environmentalists, such as Greenpeace, who, although he considers that some proposals for Feijóo are “relevant, necessary and urgent,” warns about the lack of depth when addressing “structural problems such as abandonment of rural areas and the necessary adaptation of Spanish ecosystems to climate change.”
“Some of that is about Feijóo’s plan, but it is not enough,” said Professor Emeritus.
“If we take into account the fields of Galicia, for example, very little was done there during his government (2009-2022),” he added.
The Vox party, which appears as a third political force in Spain, disqualified Feijóo’s proposal and insisted on its own plan: recovery of traditional mountain cleaning, unification of command, tightening of penalties to pyómanos, more means and creation of a national water plan.
Meantime
The sinister areas were finally declared “catastrophic” by the Government, which must facilitate government aid to help alleviate personal and material damage that have affected homes and belongings.
Likewise, financial aid will also be granted to cover the expenses of local authorities, and damages in industrial, commercial and service establishments, including farmers and livestock.
However, there are farmers, such as Abelardo, in the Sanabria region, in the province of Zamora, which doubts the help.
“Something will give, but it will not be enough to cover the losses of thousands of euros in vegetables and animals,” he claimed.
Indeed, only in the rural area of Sanabria the preliminary calculation of damage exceeds 10 million euros (about 12 million dollars) and, according to the newspaper Zamora’s opinionVíctor Coco, owner of Villa Lucena in Vigo de Sanabria, stressed that “that figure between forest, farmers and the tourism sector will be exceeded.”
The kings of Spain, Felipe VI and Letizia, visit the affected areas for the second time and, unlike Sánchez, who asks for a prudential distance from the public, the Spanish monarchs shown hands and talked with locals.
Marta Fernández, livestock in the area, said that, together with her husband, “we have tried to save everything we have been able to. There is a lot of despair because the grass I have granted in the mountains is burned. That is why I have asked me to lift me the boundary and allow me to graze in another area that has not suffered for the fire and thus the cattle can eat.”
The fires continue, although to a lesser extent.
In Galicia, fires burn in the provinces of Ourense and Lugo.
Several fires persist in Castilla y León. Porto’s fire, in Zamora, revives and forces to evacuate five peoples.
And in Asturias, where the Picos de Europa National Park was in danger of fire, fires continue in several regions.
