The Government of Spain to declare all the places affected by this summer's major fires to be areas specially affected by emergencies

Bejís (Castellón)

"We must equip all the administrations with greater resources and strengthen our institutional cooperation to tackle the common enemy that fires represent", stressed the head of the Executive, who called on all the parliamentary groups to "abandon any kind of partisan fight" to support the Royal Decree on urgent measures in the field of energy and forest fires, which will be debated this Thursday in the Congress of Deputies.

Likewise, Sánchez stressed the importance of "the Government's absolute transparency and responsibility" regarding last Tuesday's railway incident on the Valencia-Zaragoza line, which is currently under judicial investigation. "I would like to ask the various political forces not to use this incident as an element of partisan confrontation," he said.

The head of the Executive highlighted the coordination on the ground of all the public administrations, as well as the collaboration and solidarity between the autonomous communities affected by the fires. "We are facing a climatic emergency and the Spanish Government is fully committed to providing all the means and resources to prevent and extinguish these fires and to recover these unique natural landscapes", the President assured.

Sánchez took advantage of his visit to Castellón to express his gratitude for the behaviour and responsibility of the residents of the municipalities affected by the fires, as well as the work of all the troops deployed in the area. "A big thank you to the entire National Civil Protection System because, despite the devastation of these fires, we have had no loss of life and now it is time to tackle the reconstruction and recovery of the area", he said.

Non official translation