Sánchez warns that the situation of the fires "continues to be complex"

MadridDouble message from Pedro Sánchez from the advanced command post of the fire devastating 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 stated this after, during the night, both the Madrid fire and the Ávila fire – which has burned between 13,000 and 15,000 hectares – have remained uncontrolled despite the efforts of firefighters to extinguish them.

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.

Furthermore, as he has done in recent days, the Spanish president has once again alluded to the climate emergency: “It is increasingly worsening and surpassing 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 encouragement to 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 call to “make possible” a State pact against the climate emergency.

A hearing without Ayuso

Pedro Sánchez has also wanted to boast about the “coordination, agility, and effectiveness” that is being shown in the response to the fires by all public administrations, which “are making all the resources at their disposal 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, have also traveled. However, the Spanish president did not share the appearance with the Madrid leader, unlike what happened in the other two fires he has visited in the last fifteen days. On July 13, he went to Los Gallardos (Almería), where he coincided with the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno Bonilla and called for “rising to the occasion” in the fight against the climate emergency. Nine days later, he traveled to La Mierla (Guadalajara) to visit the largest forest fire in the history of Castilla-La Mancha alongside Emiliano García-Page and called for setting aside “partisan fighting” to combat the “common enemy”.

PP's reproaches to Puente

From the People's Party, the Deputy Secretary of Finance, Juan Bravo, has called for the "priority" to 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," 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 twenty-five hours after a harsh exchange of reproaches between Óscar Puente and Isabel Díaz Ayuso. “The first buffoon to get in the middle to stir things up, that's him,” the Madrid president pointed out after requesting the declaration of a national emergency. The minister replied bluntly: “Now you ask for help from this government that you spend your life insulting and disqualifying. If there is a buffoon in Spain, it is you”.