Feijóo beats Sánchez to the punch and proposes a firefighting plan that geolocates arsonists.

MadridThe PP mocked Pedro Sánchez for wanting to push through a grand agreement to combat the climate emergency and wildfires, and this Monday the party's leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, appeared to present a plan with 50 measures aimed at rebuilding affected towns, boosting aid for rural areas, and preventing further disasters. "We presented the plan before the Spanish government," boasted the opposition leader, although his leaders accused the Spanish government of being "tactical" with the plan. proposal for a state pact"It's as if, in the middle of a tsunami, you propose a pact for the oceans," laughed Deputy Secretary Ester Muñoz a week ago.

Among the most notable measures of the PP's plan is a state registry of arsonists. This would include people convicted with a final sentence for intentionally starting fires, and would entail "the mandatory use of telematic location bracelets," said Feijóo, who noted that 168 people are either arrested or under investigation for this summer's fires. Her idea is to use geolocation tools like those used to monitor men involved in cases of domestic violence. The second major measure of the conservative party's plan would involve "clarifying the processes" for dealing with emergencies, with transparent criteria for mobilizing resources to avoid "clumsy politics."

In this regard, Feijóo reiterated that the Spanish government has arrived "late." "The Minister of Defense has acted like a groveler," he said, and asserted that he would again demand the deployment of the army, as he did when the fires in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula reached uncontrolled proportions. These words came after the aforementioned leader, Margarita Robles, accused the autonomous communities governed by the People's Party of "not having assumed their obligations." This Tuesday, Robles is scheduled to appear before the Senate—at the proposal of the People's Party—and has warned that she will explain "what has and has not been done." In recent weeks, the People's Party's criticism of the Spanish government has been constant, and the party's deputy secretary, Elías Bendodo, even went so far as to call the director of Civil Protection, Virginia Barcones, an "arsonist."

Now, Genoa is proposing a plan to depoliticize forestry emergencies, as Moncloa wanted with the state pact. Feijóo thus sought to get ahead of Sánchez, who has yet to specify the plan he announced two weeks ago. The executive's approach is to meet with companies, unions, the scientific community, and the entire forestry sector to work on medium- and long-term measures. According to the PP, the Spanish government wants to shift the debate toward the fight against climate change and not toward the interests of the forestry sector, which is demanding fewer obstacles to clearing forests and, ultimately, intervening in the countryside.