Fire and Global Warming

Sadly, Spain continues to burn. A giant fire in Madrid and another in Ávila managed by Sunday morning between them to burn some 45,000 hectares, but at least this time, the ES-Alarm warnings were sent out and there were no deaths reported. Other major fires were reported in Toledo and Castellón.

By Wednesday, the hectares burned in July had risen spectacularly to 172,000, as another hot-spell – the fourth this summer – arrived.

El Huff Post on Saturday had an embedded reporter with the firefighters in the south-eastern part of the Madrid region, where the neighbours said that it was the worst fire in Madrid’s history. Even the city to the north was full of smoke and ash. An opinion found at 20Minutos is bleak: ‘we are not prepared for these catastrophes’.

‘As climate scientists long warned would be the case, Europe’s wildfires are worsening in intensity, scale and duration as the planet heats up. When the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, attributed the current crisis to the effects of the climate emergency, he was stating the obvious’ says The Guardian. In a recent report, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe issued a warning about climate change, saying it is directly responsible for intensifying wildfires and their increasing frequency.

The rule is that these responsibilities fall on the regional governments, who may cut back on emergency funds in the knowledge that central Government can and will help if called to do so. And thus we have Madrid’s Díaz Ayuso and the Transport Minister Óscar Puente trading horrific insults over who is responsible to organise the defence against the flames.

The Madrid firefighters are not happy bunnies, as their standing wage of 1,300€ a month (May to October only) hasn’t increased in the last fifteen years. It’s just one of those things: considered as a waste of resources during the winter months, and as an alarming necessity during the fires. No doubt they could be found a useful task in the colder months – cleaning the dry brush, cutting back the growth, trimming the branches near the road and buildings, and even helping plan emergency escape routes and giving fire-prevention lectures to schoolchildren. Indeed, the Madrid firefighters warned back in April that fire prevention efforts had been cut in half.

We read that ‘the farmers criticize rural abandonment and demand a plan to rid the summer wildfires of potential fuel during the winter months’. We also read that the law (la ley de montes) insists on brush-cleaning and other fire-preventative obligations.

Furthermore, we read of donkeys, goats, sheep, bison (!) and even toros bravos grazing clean the hills (following the wet winter and extra growth).

All grist for the armchair firefighters and hostile social media influencers.

The always critical leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, links the "repeated disasters" in Spain to corruption and the government's "climate fanaticism". So not much help from him.

As more than one critic says – we need more firefighters and less bullfighters. 

So, is it over? From El Mundo earlier this week here: ‘The fourth heatwave of the summer will trigger a surge in wildfires starting Wednesday, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius. The intense heat and dry conditions will cause the fire risk to reach critical levels across almost the entire country’.

 

The New Normal: The Coalition of the Right

Those of us who live in Andalucía (or, for that matter, in Castilla y León, Extremadura or Aragón) now have a regional government made up of the PP (the majority party) in alliance with the Vox. The tail in every case, wagging the dog.

This dreary coalition, I call it the PPox, has the program of the Partido Popular with certain policies from Vox added under duress (or at least, so Juanma Moreno claims) such as the discriminatory Prioridad Nacional. 

Wiki explains: ‘National Priority or preference is the idea that a series of political, economic, or social rights should be reserved exclusively or primarily for the members of a nation. It is a popular term that encompasses the concepts of nativism and social chauvinism’.

Málaga Hoy says that the Andalusian agreement supposes: ‘National Priority for housing, a ban on the burka in public spaces, and an emergency plan to address waiting lists are among the 150 measures in the pact. For access to public housing, ten years of residency registration will be required for purchases and five years for rentals. There will be a priority pathway for cancer diagnosis and an annual audit of the cost of healthcare for foreigners’.  

Google AI says: ‘The "national priority" (or prioridad nacional) policies proposed by conservative coalitions aim to give native-born Spaniards preference over foreigners for state aid, social housing, and public subsidies. However, experts note these moves directly conflict with national equality laws’ (and indeed, Article 13 of the Constitution: “Foreigners shall enjoy in Spain the public freedoms guaranteed by this Title under the terms established by treaties and the law"). The European Commission doesn’t approve either: ‘Brussels warns that it will ensure there is no discrimination with the National Priority’.

Furthermore (the Right has always been uneasy with the science of climate change), Andalucía will be declared "free from the burdens of the European Green Deal". There is no mention in the program regarding gender violence, LGTBIQ+ rights and Muslim and Arab language school studies are to be dropped, as the manly activities of bullfighting and la caza (hunting) now take centre stage. 

elDiario.es has: ‘Through 150 measures, the agreement consolidates ideological concessions made by the PP to Vox, such as the outright rejection of the 2030 Agenda and the creation of a new Law of Concord (forgive and forget the past crimes under the Dictatorship). The far-right leader Manuel Gavira will become vice president with a super-ministry under his control: the Ministry of Tourism, Local Administration, and Justice’.

The whole deal was announced just half an hour before the Thursday coronation of Juanma Moreno, giving little time for any revolt among the conservatives. The reaction from the regional PSOE leader María Jesús Montero was to call it a "pact of shame. For the first time since the Franco regime, the far right will enter an Andalusian government", she said.

Will this state of affairs be a success? In Madrid, Alberto Núñez Feijóo (screaming daily for fresh elections) admits that, if the voters wanted it, then he would agree to a pact, a pax, a PPox with Vox.