Sánchez warns that the fire situation "continues to be complex"

MadridDouble message from Pedro Sánchez from the advanced command post of the fire ravaging the Community of Madrid and which has burned almost 10,000 hectares. The Spanish president has warned that the situation “remains complex” because, despite temperatures having dropped, it is not known “what the evolution and intensity of the winds will be” in the coming hours, but at the same time he has not ruled out that, during the weekend, there will be a “window of opportunity” to “fight the fire and protect lives and population centers”. He verbalized this after, during the night, both the Madrid fire and the Ávila fire – which has incinerated between 13,000 and 15,000 hectares– have remained out of control despite the efforts of the firefighters.

Sánchez stressed that, following the declaration of national emergency, it is now the Spanish government that “leads the response” to the two fronts, which “become a single fire” and, therefore, have “a unified operational response system”. “Our priority is to safeguard lives and defend population centers,” he proclaimed. Previously, the head of the Military Emergencies Unit (UME), Francisco Javier Marcos, justified that creating a “unified command of the emergency” to work with a “single sector” is the “best way to manage and gain time”. “Treating this catastrophe and this fire as one [...] will contribute to the effectiveness, coordination and agility of all the decisions we make,” he stressed.

Furthermore, as he has done in recent days, the Spanish president has once again alluded to the climate emergency: “It is getting worse and worse and is exceeding many scientific predictions, and this requires increasing capacities in response and in prevention and awareness tasks for citizens and public institutions”. In fact, at this point, with this enthusiasm for administrations, Sánchez has sent an implicit message to the agreements of the PP and Vox that question the effects of climate change: “It is very important that all public administrations heed science,” he said. Finally, he reiterated the demand to “make possible” a state pact against the climate emergency.

A hearing without Ayuso

Pedro Sánchez also wanted to emphasize the “coordination, agility and effectiveness” that is being shown in the response to the flames by all public administrations, which “are making all available resources available” to facilitate logistics against the flames. Ten autonomous communities have sent aid, and support is also expected from Greece, Italy, and Portugal, which has deployed more than a hundred army units.

He said all this from Cenicientos, where the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, also traveled. However, the Spanish president did not share the press conference with the Madrid leader, unlike what happened in the other two fires he has visited in the last fifteen days, when he shared a microphone with Juanma Moreno Bonilla from Andalusia and Emiliano García-Page from Castilla-La Mancha.

The Madrid president appeared two hours later to ask for “understanding and patience” in the face of an “unprecedented and never-before-seen situation” that could lead to “much worse situations” in the coming hours. She boasted that “all the means” of Madrid are working “without rest” and celebrated that “all administrations” are focused on “the most important thing right now,” which is to extinguish the flames. And, when asked directly, she avoided making “any assessment” about the public spat with Minister Óscar Puente.

PP's reprimands to Puente

From the People's Party, the Deputy Secretary of Finance, Juan Bravo, has demanded that the "priority" must be to "put all available means" to fight fires and has highlighted that "collaboration and coordination" between administrations is "fundamental" and "more necessary than ever." "All those political leaders who are there to insult, break or confront, please, step aside, move away and do not bother them," he stated in a video sent to the media. "While some are there to insult, others are there to collaborate and help," he concluded.

He said this twenty-four hours after a harsh exchange of recriminations between Óscar Puente and Isabel Díaz Ayuso. “The first  buffoon  who gets in the middle to stir things up, will have it coming,” pointed out the Madrid president after requesting the declaration of a national emergency. The minister replied bluntly: “Now you're asking for help from this government, which you spend your life insulting and disqualifying. If there is a buffoon in Spain, it's you.” Later, he reproached her for opening an investigation into the firefighters who complained that they didn't have vehicles and announced that they would go on their own to fires: “There are reasons to be very afraid of these people,” expressed the minister.