The Catalan Government kicked off the political season this Friday by holding a meeting of its members at the Les Avellanes monastery (Lleida) with the aim of highlighting its commitment to emergency and wildfire policies after a very challenging summer. The conclave was preceded by the signing of a protocol with the presidents of the four Provincial Councils to improve forest management and fire prevention. After the signing, President Salvador, in a speech in the cloister, stated that his Executive “will not cut a single euro” in this area and that, moreover, it will increase technical resources, the staff of firefighters and rural agents, and strengthen coordination between administrations. Catalonia suffered only one major fire this year, in July, in Girona, which affected a perimeter of 2,300 hectares. The Government meeting will conclude this Saturday.
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Illa did not explicitly mention other communities that have reduced emergency and firefighter service budgets such as Valencia, Madrid, or Aragón, which this year lost 33,400 hectares, 21,112 of them forested. The president praised the action protocol based on these three concepts: prevention, action, and reaction. “We start the season with a great agreement and that is very good,” he emphasized in the presence of the four presidents of the corporations, who belong to different parties: the PSC controls Barcelona’s, ERC Lleida’s and Tarragona’s, and Junts Girona’s. Illa wanted to send three messages: political unity against fire – “It is not like that everywhere” – he stressed; that he will not cut a single euro in emergency, forest management, and prevention; and that climate change must be acknowledged. “In Catalonia, we believe in science. We must raise awareness. We do not deny it like other administrations,” he stated.
Catalonia suffered the major fire of Las Gavarres, in Empordà, in July, but has avoided, at least so far, other large-scale disasters like those in Aragón, Madrid, or Castilla-La Mancha. “Those who deny climate change put our safety and lives at risk,” Illa said, pointing out that the average hectares burned per incident in Catalonia is 5.5 hectares. “And that means a very good response capacity,” he boasted. Illa recalled that the rural agents’ staff will double to 1,304 professionals and that the Firefighters’ strategic plan will consolidate 4,000 personnel by 2030. The Government will manage 600,000 hectares of public forests in 2026 compared to 480,000 between 2023 and 2025. “We are accelerating management to reach 2,000 hectares per year,” emphasized the president, who has always maintained that, contrary to popular belief, Catalonia has too many trees and that good forest policy is necessary to stop the spread of flames. A year ago, in Arnés, at the IV Trobade del Govern, he already advocated for forest reduction policy.
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The four presidents have shown their full support for the protocol, whose idea originated precisely in Arnés, where the dreadful fires of Segarra (5,200 hectares burned) and Paüls (3,300 hectares devastated) in Terres del Ebre, which cost three lives, were analyzed. Noemí Llauradó, president of the Tarragona Provincial Council, from ERC, stated that prevention and management are two sides of the same coin. “Fires do not understand boundaries. Sharing resources and knowledge will allow us to go further,” she said, explaining that what the forest provides must be used to generate jobs, for example, through biomass management and recovering the agroforestry mosaic to help agriculture. “We already do it, but hand in hand with the Government, we will go further,” she affirmed. The protocol, which foresees the promotion of forest trenches, entails that administrations commit to speeding up procedures and bypassing bureaucracy.
The season will start with the focus again on education, with the strike called for the 8th, the first day of school, and Rodalies, which is mired in its permanent crisis. These two issues will mark the Government session. Illa has not publicly referred to them, although he has predicted that this pre-election season will be full of “noise.” The president forecasted that issues such as guaranteeing peace in Europe, the financing model, budget execution, or Civil Protection policies in education, housing, or infrastructure will mark the next 10 years. Illa warned that some, clearly referring to the PP, will take advantage “without any scruples” of any circumstance to “attack Catalonia” and others any gap to do the same and “spread falsehoods.” “The Government will work. We will exercise our responsibility and remain faithful to our values,” he stated. He took the opportunity to remember the 150 people who died in Ceuta and clarified that those who say one must choose between security values and humanism lie. “We will always act in solidarity. In two words: order and values, those of welcome or integration,” he affirmed.
