Statement by the president of the Government of Spain after visiting the command post in Somiedo and Cangas del Narcea (Asturias)

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

Thank you very much, president, vice-president, minister, government delegate, mayor and other authorities.

First of all, as I am doing in all the appearances in the areas affected by the fires I am visiting, I would like to thank the media for their work, because the public service information you are providing to the public at such difficult times as the ones we are facing is absolutely necessary.

Secondly, I would like to highlight the extraordinary coordination and collaboration that we are having with the Principality of Asturias in the fight against the fires that are affecting this region. And I would also like to highlight, as the president of the Principality of Asturias has done, this emergency service, which in some way shows us, and we learn the lesson, that when this management is approached in an integrated manner, it is certainly not possible to prevent fires from occurring, but we can reduce, limit and cushion the harmful effects that fires have on our territory. I would therefore like to highlight this as proof that the public sector can indeed provide effective tools and instruments to protect the security of our fellow citizens and also to defend our territory.

Of course, we in the Government of Spain have done so. The deployment of the Director General of Civil Protection, Virginia, whom I would like to congratulate for her work during all these long hours, long days and long nights in which she has been on the front line, we have deployed all the troops we have at our disposal. Right now we have deployed throughout Spain more than 3,400 UME troops, 500 army personnel who joined this military deployment, more than 500 vehicles and also the necessary infrastructure to fight the fires. And along with this, 6,000 troops from the Civil Guard and the National Police and also ten forest fire brigades led by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, in addition to other capabilities that are being made available to all the territories affected by the fires.

All of this has been activated thanks to the Directorate General for Civil Protection and the CECOD, the National Response Mechanism, where solidarity has effectively been exercised by other autonomous communities in the transfer of resources. And also, and I would like to highlight this, because here we have representatives from the Principality of Andorra and we are also going to receive an important presence from the government of Greece to fight fires, because countries that through the European Civil Protection Mechanism are demonstrating what Europe means.

And this is what Europe is all about: it is solidarity, it is commitment, and it is being there through thick and thin. And there are countries that have exercised and shown this solidarity, as Spain has also done in the great fires suffered, for example, by Portugal or Greece a few years ago. And I would also like to express once again, as I have always done, our enormous gratitude - as I did yesterday to the president of the European Commission - to the peoples of Greece, Finland, the Principality, Andorra, but also Germany, France, Romania and Italy. In short, all those countries that, through the European Civil Protection Mechanism, are currently showing solidarity with our country, because we are suffering a very serious crisis as a result of these fires.

The president of Asturias said something earlier, which seems to me to be fundamental, and that is that Asturias has never experienced such recurrent temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius. And I believe that this should lead us to reflect on the fact that, in effect, we are seeing how the climate emergency is advancing ever more rapidly, ever more assiduously, and the effects are increasingly serious, and therefore, that all the warnings, the alarms that science has been telling all the institutional leaders over the last few years, but not only, of course, also the companies, the workers' representatives, have been exceeded. And therefore, we have to resize and redefine all aspects related to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

And this is also something that the institutions, but also society as a whole, have to do together, because we are all affected by this climate emergency and we have to make a commitment that transcends legislatures and that, therefore, the climate emergency and the policies linked to the climate emergency are State policies, as we also did with many other areas of our lives, of our coexistence, making us all work together in the same direction, in this case against the climate emergency.

That is why the Government of Spain has been working and will continue to work over the coming months and years on this State Pact against the climate emergency. In this respect, there are two things I would like to announce. The first is that next Tuesday, before the Council of Ministers, an Interministerial Commission on Climate Change will be set up, which will be responsible, along with the third vice-president for Ecological Transition, for leading, together with the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is responsible for civil protection, everything that represents the path towards achieving the State pact that our country needs in relation to the climate emergency. Secondly, I believe that the proposal made by the President of the Principality of Asturias, Adrián Barbón, is necessary and that the Conference of Regional Presidents that we are going to hold in Asturias before the end of the year should be an important part of this State pact against the climate emergency that allows all the regional presidents, all the town councils and provincial councils to join together with the Government of Spain, with the General State Administration, to define and implement all the policies that have to do with prevention, response and subsequent reconstruction when this type of calamity occurs.

Therefore, speaking of reconstruction, I would like to end by saying, as I announced the other day on my visit to Zamora, that next Tuesday, the Minister for Home Affairs announced to me as head of the Civil Protection System, we will proceed to declare areas affected by a disaster or a civil protection emergency, as we are going to do with all those places that have been devastated by the fires. Here I would ask, and I know that in the case of Asturias and in the other sub-delegations and delegations we are going to have it, that above all the mayors and the neighbours of the affected areas, of course, help us to have as much information as possible as soon as possible and to know exactly what the dimension is in terms of the economic assessment of the disaster that we are suffering this month of August.

Therefore, to conclude: one, this inter-ministerial commission is going to be held before the Council of Ministers on 26 August in order to set up and define this State pact against the climate emergency. Two, we are going to take as our own the proposal of the president of the Principality of Asturias that the Conference of Presidents to be held in Asturias should be an important part of the definition and implementation of this pact, of the State Pact against the climate emergency. And finally, I would like to say that as of next Tuesday we will open the door so that we can make an assessment of everything, of this whole catastrophe, so that our neighbours can tackle as soon as possible the reconstruction of those places that, unfortunately, the fires have destroyed.

And for the rest, president, I would simply like to convey to you all our cooperation, to the citizens of Asturias all our empathy, our solidarity and, of course, the commitment of the Government of Spain when we do, as we do with all disasters, that we will be here, when the media are no longer here and that this reconstruction, which unfortunately will take months, if not years, will continue to be necessary. And thanks again to the media.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)