The fire that this summer has ravaged almost 36,000 hectares in Aragón, a community that has suffered two of the major summer fires in Spain, has also ignited politics, determined to put it out at all costs. In the first plenary session of the Cortes of this community, held this week, President Jorge Azcón announced 51 million euros to strengthen firefighting resources, and the socialist opposition led by Pilar Alegría extended a hand to promote a pact to help prevent them and mitigate climate change. Just hours earlier, the Aragonese firefighters, on strike since August 18, had reached a preliminary agreement with the public company Sarga that led them to cancel the rally they had planned precisely for this Thursday at the doors of the Aljafería Palace, seat of the Aragonese parliament, which would have spoiled the photo of the political course start for the PP-VOX Government.
Aragón, as this newspaper reported, is, along with Extremadura, the autonomous community with the fewest firefighting personnel per inhabitant and also the one that has most frequently called on help from other administrations to extinguish this summer’s fires, which also caused the evacuation of about thirty municipalities, the displacement of more than 2,000 residents and vacationers, and, worse still, the death of a UME corporal during firefighting operations. For all these reasons, the regional government wanted to start the term by amending this fateful summer. “Do you think announcing 51 million euros more to fight the fire is little self-criticism?” Azcón retorted to the opposition. The Popular Party president acknowledged that, with the fires Aragón experienced this summer, more was needed, and already in mid-August he announced an extraordinary budget in this area.
There will be more helicopters, amphibious planes, and fire trucks. Also, an Aragonese emergency agency. The injection of 51 million euros announced by Azcón will serve to strengthen and reorganize the fight against fire and, although there are no concrete dates for when it will materialize, this shock plan will allow the incorporation of new firefighting resources and 30% more personnel, as the firefighters demanded in the midst of their rebellion. In addition, investments will be complemented with a package of aid for those affected, more than two million euros for affected farmers, and another three million for SMEs and self-employed workers, as well as similar allocations to mitigate damage to homes and for emergency actions on roads and other municipal facilities. “We will also compensate the farmers who helped put out the fires,” the president pointed out, who wanted to start the term by stopping all possible blows from the black summer. And, as upcoming measures, perimeter rings will be included in different municipalities to prevent the urban area from being affected in the event of a possible fire.
“Zero risk does not exist,” he hedged, “but the Government assumes the commitment,” said the Aragonese president. This did not prevent another fire, that of cross criticisms from the opposition. “You, who take advantage of the slightest opportunity to criticize the Government of Spain,” Pilar Alegría reproached him, “turn out to be the one who has had to ask for the most help from the evil Government of Spain,” and she asked him for humility and to get to work, but at the same time offered him a pact. “You have my hand extended,” Alegría emphasized; “I hope you do not spit on it again.” The PSOE offers the Aragonese Government a pact against fires and against climate change, and the latter concept is precisely what annoys Jorge Azcón’s Vox partners. “I have never denied the scientific evidence of climate change nor will I; they insist on placing it as the central element of this debate, but I am sorry to tell you that it is not,” Azcón said yesterday in the plenary session, asking Alegría that, before offering a pact, “you apologize for the demagogy you have had with me in other disasters.”
The party of Abascal also did not respond—beyond disdain—to the continuous accusations from the opposition about Vox’s denialism. When CHA deputy Jorge Pueyo confronted one of the far-right deputies, asking how they planned to respond to climate change, Sergio Marco replied indifferently, “when it’s cold I put on clothes and when it’s hot I take them off.”
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