The president of Castile and León defends his handling of the fires amid calls for his resignation.

Madrid / BarcelonaWith dozens of firefighters demanding his resignation at the doors of the regional parliament, the president of Castile and León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, attempted to defend himself this Friday regarding his handling of the fires that have burned thousands of hectares in his community. "I would have preferred to appear with the full report. What is happening is too important and real to make political calculations," said the regional leader of the PP, addressing the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) faction, which promoted his appearance in Parliament this morning and, along with several other parties, called for his resignation. Mañueco estimated the number of hectares affected by the fires at 141,000, which particularly affected the provinces of León and Zamora, after 348 fires in 23 days and three fatalities; the plenary session observed a minute of silence in his memory.

"I don't think this is the time to make partisan gains or make politics out of fires," Mañueco insisted in his opening remarks, in which he emphasized that the weather conditions of recent weeks have been "exceptional," with a heat wave that has lasted for many days. "When there are extreme circumstances, fires are beyond the capacity to extinguish them. [...]The Minister of Defense pointed out:"These are extremely voracious fires, very difficult to extinguish, if not impossible. It's impossible to control them from the ground or in the air." I completely agree," Mañueco excused himself.

The President of Castilla y León thanked the emergency services and the regional and Spanish governments, which have provided resources for the extinguishing of the fires, as well as those of other European countries that have collaborated. However, Mañueco has received complaints from firefighters, given that Castilla y León has outsourced its forestry and emergency services to several private companies, and workers report precarious conditions. 74 million euros." He also announced that he will promote a decree to regulate the planning and management of Castilla y León's forests and will open a broad social dialogue with stakeholders in the forestry and rural sectors to provide ideas on how to improve prevention.

In their interventions, several opposition groups criticized him for this outsourcing and the fact that he did not appear voluntarily. "You are appearing because you had no other choice," said Elisa Patricia Gómez, spokesperson for the PSOE parliamentary group. The Socialists accused Mañueco of lying during his speech about investment in prevention: they claim that the regional president has left "unspent" 71% of a budget "already cut" by the PP governments. "We have been denouncing the risk and seriousness of this situation for years, and you and your party have done nothing but mock our insistence," said Gómez, who demanded Mañueco's resignation, stating that he will emerge "politically condemned" from this Friday's appearance.

Podemos MP Pablo Fernández has also asked him to back down, announcing that the party will take Mañueco to the Prosecutor's Office: "You should resign, but you won't because you have no shame, no ethics, no morals." Fernández also warned that those who vote for the Popular Party in the regional elections next March "will also be responsible for what happens," and expressed his hope that, "with this management," Castilla y León, where the Popular Party has governed for 38 years, "will react once and for all."

"We've certainly made mistakes"

Mañueco acknowledged that some things could have been done better: "We've certainly made mistakes," he said, but he shielded himself behind the virulence of the fires and asserted that "none of these errors were committed to get a vote," but rather were "the result of difficulty or urgency." Distancing himself from the opposition, he retorted: "That is the moral boundary that separates us." In response to criticism for having taken so long to cancel his vacation, Mañueco asserted that he called it off "as soon as the situation got out of hand," and contrasted this with the fact that Pedro Sánchez was in Lanzarote while "half of Spain was burning." However, he said that it would "never" occur to him to think that "a tragedy of this magnitude is indifferent" to Sánchez, and made it clear that it was not indifferent to him either.

Regarding the controversial request for help made by Castilla y León on July 15, and that caused the clash between the PP and the state director of Civil Protection, Virginia Barcones, Mañueco stated that what was being requested was "a reinforcement of logistical support efforts," and under no circumstances more resources to attack the blazes, with the aim of "freeing up" Castile and León's firefighting personnel from prevention and surveillance duties so they could respond to the front lines of the fire. A few days ago, Barcones stated that some autonomous regions had requested "impossible" measures, and this Tuesday Robles hinted that the requests were "a consequence" of Genoa's criticism of the Spanish government's management.

Mañueco also recalled that three years ago he proposed to Spanish President Pedro Sánchez that fire prevention be addressed as a "matter of state," following the worst fires recorded before this summer. Just now, the head of the Spanish government has also proposed a state pact "against the climate emergency," which the PP leadership has so far rejected because it sees "political tacticism." However, those in the Moncloa believe that regional leaders do want to address this state pact, as Mañueco has demonstrated, because it would free the fires from the political squabble.