Robles provokes the PP in the Senate and shows 50 minutes of videos of the UME (Union of the People's Party) in the fires.

Madrid / BarcelonaDefense Minister Margarita Robles' appearance in the Senate to explain her handling of this summer's wildfires began in an unusual way: for 50 minutes, those attending the Senate's Defense Committee remained silent, watching a video that compiled, in chronological order from the 10th to the 10th, the Military Emergency Unit (UME) and the ministry headed by Robles. The tweets mainly showed videos and photographs of multiple army personnel working on the ground to combat the fires, following days in which the Popular Party (PP) criticized the Spanish government's management, accusing it of not activating enough troops to put out the flames. At the end of the viewing, Robles said that she found it "curious" that some senators had stopped paying attention.

"I am sure that the vast majority of you have followed with absolute care, in a meticulous manner, every tweet we have issued," she said. The objective of displaying dozens and dozens of tweets was, according to the minister, to "visualize all the actions" carried out by the UME (Union of Military Forces) and the army, as well as "the times and places where they have been deployed." The PP spokesperson on the Senate Defense Committee, Adolfo Gutiérrez, tiptoed around Robles' provocation and criticized the Spanish government's "sectarian dynamic," according to which it uses any incident to "seek conflict." "It's always about us and them," he complained.

During the appearance, Robles expressed her "surprise" at the requests made by some autonomous regions governed by the PP on July 15 for more resources. The minister attributed this directly to the statements made by the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, that same day criticizing the Spanish government's management, stating that the requests were "a consequence of these statements."

Robles asserted that the regional ministers "have had a hard time," having to make "difficult" decisions and seeing how "someone from outside comes, even if they're from the same party," and "asks them to request resources." The Minister of Defense also criticized the fact that several autonomous regions requested "incredible amounts," despite the fact that work was being done in an "absolutely coordinated" manner. In this regard, Robles retorted: "We should learn not to tell the technicians what to do."

Regarding the fact that the autonomous communities must request the Spanish government for the extraordinary resources they require, the minister said that she has "no problem" with this changing. In this regard, during the round of replies, Junts senator Eduard Pujol, who called the 50-minute video a "show," wanted to warn the PP, "and also the PSOE just in case": "Don't threaten us with any kind of new centralization."

Start of the term in Congress

In Congress, the session began this morning as the previous session ended in July: with an examination of Pedro Sánchez by his members. The People's Party (PP) had registered up to nine requests for urgent appearances—scheduled for this week—by the Spanish president himself and several ministers, but these requests were not approved. In most votes, the investiture partners saved the Spanish executive. Some of the groups had already warned that they would reject all appearances because the Spanish executive had committed to having the ministers responsible for the fire crisis present. who will appear in the Senate this week They will also do so in Congress in the coming weeks. The PSOE has announced that the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and the Third Vice President and Minister for Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, will give their explanations on September 4 and 5, respectively, in a committee in Congress.

It is common practice for the political year after the summer to begin with a flood of requests for ministers to appear before the opposition, but this time, the PP especially wants to demonstrate all the open files the executive has. All the requests that the PP had registered in Congress have been rejected by just one or two votes, except in the case of the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, and the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, in which both votes ended in a tie and, as stipulated by the regulations, have also been rejected. ERC has rejected all the appearances, and Junts, for its part, only spared Sánchez, Aagesen, and Ana Redondo, the Minister of Equality, and voted in favor of the remaining requests. As for Podemos, it rejected all the appearances requested by the PP except for those of Minister Puente, Robles, and Aagesen.

The PSOE and Sumar wanted to focus the debate on the issue of the fires and protested that the PP regional presidents are not planning to give explanations in Parliament. "The PP has the powers, but it doesn't exercise them. The main measure is a list of arsonists with a bracelet to detect them. It's better to leave the occurrences for another time and assume the responsibilities that each one has," said Socialist Patxi López. From the Moncloa Palace, the Spanish government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, denounced that the PP's "pattern of conduct" when there are emergency situations is "to look for culprits within the Spanish government." Along the same lines, Sumar spokesperson Verónica Martínez denounced the need for a "registry of climate deniers" and accused the PP of "passing the buck" and "sowing institutional distrust."

The struggle continues

This Wednesday, the political struggle over the fires continued. After her appearance in the Senate, Defense Minister Margarita Robles attacked the PP governments for not assuming "responsibility" for the fires and defended the State's right to not intervene in their territories, respecting the distribution of powers. In an interview on SER (Spanish radio station), Robles denied that the State had any obligation to intervene or coordinate and reminded everyone that it was the regional governments that should, if necessary, request the Army's assistance if they deemed it necessary. "They will know how to coordinate," she said, recalling that the regional presidents should be "on the front line." She also accused the territories most affected by the fires of a lack of investment in prevention.