Pedro Sánchez emphasises that the priority is "to save lives and protect population centres," for which "the entire State is making all resources at its disposal available"

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, travelled this morning to the area affected by the forest fires in Madrid. The head of the Executive - accompanied by the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso; the Minister for Home Affairs, Fernando Grande Marlaska; and the Government Delegate, Francisco Martín - visited the Forward Command Post in Cenicientos and attended the meeting of the State Coordination and Management Committee for the State Emergency Plan (CECOD), at which the progress of the fires in the central part of the country was assessed. Speaking to the media, the president emphasised that the priority at this time is to "save lives and protect population centres", and that to this end "the entire State is making all resources at its disposal available".

After thanking the media for their work "because it is very important at a time like this that the public receive accurate information", the president recalled that, since Friday, the Government, following a request from the regional governments of Madrid and Castile and León, had declared Operational Level 3 and, pursuant to Article 30 of the National Civil Protection System Act, had taken charge of leading the response to the fires in Ávila and Madrid, "which have now merged into a single blaze". He therefore emphasised that there is "a unified operational response system" in place, highlighting its agility, the coordination of resources - ten regional governments have already offered resources to help fight the fire - and the activation of the European Civil Protection Mechanism - resources from Greece and Italy are expected to arrive today, as well as the deployment of more than 100 units from the Portuguese Army to tackle the fire in the province of Ávila -.

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, during the institutional declaration after visiting the advanced command post | Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

The head of the Executive explained that we are set to face "a difficult few hours, because temperatures have dropped, but we do not know exactly how the winds will develop, how strong they will be, or whether dry storms will actually occur". "However, what is certain is that we have a window of opportunity this weekend to fight the fire, and that is where we will dedicate and allocate a significant portion of our resources", he noted.

State pact

The president has warned of the increasing severity of the fires ravaging our country. "So far this year, according to the Ministry for Ecological Transition, more than 130,000 hectares have been burnt. If we compare this with the average annual loss in Spain over the last decade - 100,000 hectares a year on average - we can see that the climate emergency is becoming increasingly severe". He therefore once again called for "all public institutions to heed the science and for us all to work together to reach an agreement - a national pact against the climate emergency".

Non official translation