Statement by the president of the Government of Spain after visiting the area affected by forest fires in Ourense

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN, PEDRO SÁNCHEZ

Thank you very much, President Rueda, also to the minister (of Home Affairs), of course to the Government Delegate, and to the media for attending this appearance.

Firstly, on behalf of the Government of Spain, and on behalf of all the institutions and society as a whole, I would like to express our condolences for the people who have lost their lives as a result of the various fires that are ravaging the Spanish peninsula in particular.

I would also like to express my solidarity, empathy and condolences to all those victims, the injured and, of course, all the citizens who have seen their homes, their belongings, their businesses, their way of life and their lives suddenly taken away as a result of these fires that are ravaging our country.

Secondly, I would like to say that it is very important to highlight something that President Rueda has done, and I also agree with him; to highlight the professionalism, the profession and the dedication of our public servants. On many occasions - you will have heard me say this, I also remember at the time of the DANA in Valencia - the Government of Spain has always claimed that the State is all of us, from the civil servants, the public servants of the small municipalities - in the case of Galicia - the provincial councils and, of course, also the staff of the Xunta de Galicia or of the General State Administration as a whole. This means that the recognition I want to give to the Civil Protection System extends to all of them. Of course, the Civil Guard, the Army, the Armed Forces, particularly the UME, which is in charge of the deployment of the Armed Forces, and, of course, the forestry brigades. In short, the entire system of public servants and civil servants in our civil protection system.

And from this philosophy that the State is all of us, the Government of Spain has always claimed that, in the face of crises such as the one we are experiencing right now in Galicia and particularly in the province of Ourense, we have to act side by side. We have to act as one. We need to act in a coordinated and cooperative manner. This has always been the philosophy of the Government of Spain from the outset.

I remember on the island of La Palma, when the Conference of Presidents was held and at the proposal of the Government of Spain, what we did was to propose a reinforcement of everything related to the civil protection system, given the scientific evidence that the effects of climate emergencies are becoming increasingly serious, are accelerating and are having a greater impact on the lives of our fellow citizens.

Therefore, recognition to the public servants; of course, encouragement, and the commitment of the Government of Spain, as previously stated by the president of the Xunta de Galicia and its technical managers, that from the Civil Protection System at a national level we will provide all the necessary resources to perimeter and, of course, to extinguish the fires that are ravaging particularly the province of Ourense.

Today - as the media already know - the UME itself has given the go-ahead for 500 more army troops to be deployed to the various fires in the region, and we are going to see exactly how many can arrive in Galicia, in order to respond effectively to the request from the Xunta de Galicia for 200 troops to be deployed to the fires that are currently raging in the province of Ourense.

Thirdly, I believe that something that was said earlier by the president of the Xunta is very important, and that is that there are still complex days ahead. Unfortunately, the weather is not helping us and, therefore, I would ask the citizens to be very attentive to what the institutions, professionals and technicians are telling us, to have confidence in them and, therefore, to be as cautious as possible in these difficult times and in these critical hours. Above all, because what we have to do is to save lives, to protect lives. That is what the State law enforcement forces and agencies are working on. This is what the entire civil protection system is working on and, therefore, any caution, any precaution, is always welcome and always too little for these critical hours ahead of us.

Fourthly, I would also like to claim and recognise the solidarity, not only of the State administrations as a whole, the autonomous communities, through the National Response Mechanism, where every time resources are released they are placed in the hands of the autonomous communities that are currently suffering particularly from fires, as in the case of Galicia, and also the European Civil Protection Mechanism.

Earlier, the Minister for Home Affairs, who is responsible for coordinating the entire response of the civil protection system at a state level, reminded me that this is probably the largest deployment in the history of the European Civil Protection Mechanism that is taking place in Spain, and we must recognise the solidarity of countries such as Slovakia, France, Italy, Holland and Germany, which are deploying not only troops, who will be at the disposal of the Spanish civil protection system, but also capacities and equipment so that together we can extinguish the fires as soon as possible.

So we have to be practical. We have to put all the troops that the General State Administration has in the hands of the autonomous communities, which are responsible for fighting fires. This is what we are doing both at national and European levels. And, of course, I would like to convey to all citizens that, of course, the Government Delegate and the provincial sub-delegations, as soon as these fires are extinguished, will start to evaluate and anticipate the resources that the Government of Spain will put in the hands of the affected citizens to be able to rebuild and tackle the reconstruction work, as we have done elsewhere, including in Galicia in the past, when in 2022 we unfortunately had very serious fires in Galicia and, particularly, in the province of Ourense. Put them in place as soon as possible.

I was telling the president of the Xunta de Galicia that unfortunately or fortunately, for example in the case of the DANA in Valencia, the Government delegation and the entire Ministry of Territorial Policy has innovated and streamlined everything related to with aid in a very effective and efficient way so that it can be speeded up and reach those affected as soon as possible, once we have a clear assessment of the economic cost of the damage, in this case, caused by the fires.

And one last point that seems to me to be very relevant. Of course, and the president of the Xunta de Galicia has said it: there can be no impunity. Those responsible for setting these fires must be brought to justice and there can be no impunity. And this, of course, will be guaranteed not in this case by the Government of Spain, but by the State law enforcement forces and agencies in their judicial action and, of course, by the Judiciary and the Public Prosecutor's Office.

But I do believe that we need to reflect much more deeply, and the fundamental reflection we need to make is that we have clear answers to problems that are already affecting us on a day-to-day basis, regardless of the season of the year. The clear answer to having fires of this magnitude now, to having droughts like we are having in autumn or winter, is that the climatic emergency that is ravaging the world is becoming more accelerated, more serious and more frequent, especially in places like the Iberian Peninsula.

Science has been warning us of this for a long time. In 2020, the Government of Spain declared a climate emergency throughout Spain, and since then what we have done has been to increase resources for fire prevention and firefighting. For example, in prevention we have increased by an average of 16% and in annual firefighting investment by more than 30%, 35%, in this case in prevention, and more than 40% in firefighting. When we talk about the EMU, we have increased its resources by 50% and the equipment it uses to extinguish fires and other natural disasters by more than 250%, as we have seen over the last few years.

What do I mean by this? That we need to do a fundamental reflection on how we can resize our capacities, not only in response, but also in the prevention of everything that has to do with climate emergencies, be they fires, droughts or any other natural catastrophe linked to the climate. And this may seem somewhat abstract, but unfortunately this is what we are experiencing in Galicia, in Castilla y León and in other parts of our country.

That is why I would also like to announce that the Government of Spain is going to propose a great State pact for mitigation and adaptation to the country's climate emergency. This is a challenge to all public administrations, but not only to public administrations, to the parliamentary groups in the legislative branch, to civil society as a whole, to science, to business, to trade unions; in short, to the country as a whole.

I believe that the answer to the fire or fires ravaging Spain is there. Let's give it. Fires will be extinguished. Reconstruction of all affected areas will be addressed. But I believe that we also need to think in depth about a strategy that anticipates a better, more secure and safer response for our fellow citizens in the face of the worsening and acceleration of the effects of the climate emergency in our country. And this requires a great State pact, a State pact for the climate emergency that leaves the climate emergency out of the partisan struggle, out of ideological issues, that we focus on the scientific evidence and that we act accordingly. We are all one state; we are a composite state. Each administration has its responsibilities and we all logically have to respond to these responsibilities in a coordinated, unified manner and in the same direction.

This is what the Government of Spain is going to work on from this moment on, so that in September we can have the basis of this State Pact for mitigation and adaptation to the climate emergency and so that we can, therefore, offer, for example, public servants, civil servants, all the capabilities, not only when the fire occurs, but before, so that they can respond much more effectively and, of course, with many more guarantees than they are doing now.

And for my part, I would simply like to assure the people of Galicia that the General State Administration and the Government of Spain will do everything and more to ensure that they can recover normality in their lives as soon as possible. And that means acting urgently, in extinguishing the fire, making all the resources available to the Xunta de Galicia, in this case. And, of course, to tackle the task of reconstruction.

But in addition to this response and reconstruction, we need to reform all policies that affect the climate emergency in one way or another and respond more effectively. This is what I am going to propose, what I have proposed to the president of the Xunta de Galicia, what I will propose to Spanish society as a whole; be it institutions, political parties, parliamentary groups, science, in short, civil society, companies and their trade unions, so that, once and for all, between all of us, we can be capable of resizing and responding much more effectively to this climate emergency.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)