Sánchez and Marlaska emphasize “solidarity”, while Puente accuses the PP of wanting them to “solve the problem” of the fires

The crisis of the serious fires affecting the Community of Madrid and the province of Ávila has led to the declaration of a national emergency by the central Government and at the request of the regional president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. The president, Pedro Sánchez, has already chaired this morning at La Moncloa the meeting of the State Committee for Coordination and Management of the State Emergency Plan (CECOD). On social media, he described the situation as “dramatic”, expressed his “solidarity” with all those affected and stressed that no effort would be spared to speed up the extinction: “The Government has deployed all its personnel. It will be by your side in the emergency and in the recovery. Thanks to the BRIF, the UME, the Security Forces and Corps, the Civil Protection System and all emergency services that fight day and night to stop the advance of the flames and extinguish the fire.”

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Initially, the Executive, through its delegate in Madrid, Francisco Martín, criticized the way in which the Community of Madrid made the request for the national emergency —“to request something like this, it is very important to explain well the grounds for a request of that nature. We are talking about something very serious to resolve it in a three-paragraph letter to be able to post a tweet. You don’t have to step aside and say: ‘There you go,’” he declared last night on Cadena SER—, but the Government accepted Ayuso’s request shortly after.

The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, explained from the Advanced Command Post in Cenicientos (Madrid): “The central Government does not dispute at any time, what it does is act. If an autonomous community, for whatever reasons, understands that it does not have the necessary operational and management capacity, that is what the central Government is for, to assume it immediately.” The minister understands that the declaration of national emergency is justified by the “aggressive” characteristics of the active fires, to try to prevent those fires from converging —as has finally happened—; by the proximity of urban centers in the area and by the bad weather conditions. “Today will be a critical day,” he stressed.

However, the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has adopted a different stance. In a tweet, after the declaration of national emergency due to the still active fires, he wrote: “We all know that the UME is now the new fire extinguishing service for the autonomous communities governed by the PP. They reduce taxes on the rich, shrink public services and then ask the Government to solve their problem.”

The Military Emergency Unit (UME) was created under the socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2005. It is a joint force organized on a permanent basis to intervene in natural disasters. At that time, the PP harshly criticized it: “invention”, “pharaonic whim”… It even questioned its constitutional fit, but the popular party not only did not eliminate it when they returned to power, but have thanked its intervention on multiple occasions since then. The debate has been overcome for years.

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The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, was quick to reply to the Minister of Transport. “I believe that coordination is being good and is absolutely necessary. The Government has also asked the European Union for help. The priority is to save lives, homes and stop with the nonsense. The first buffoon who gets in the way to stir up the atmosphere, that’s on him.” The president of Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco (PP) has also described the coordination with the central Executive as “good.”

The deputy secretary of Sectoral Coordination of the PP, Alma Ezcurra, has also replied to Puente: “They see sides where we only see fire. There are people who are having a hard time. The minister’s actions seem miserable to me.”

Puente quickly took offense after Ayuso’s statements and replied to her on social media: “You know a lot about stirring up the atmosphere. It’s what you live for. Now you ask for help from that Government you spend your life insulting and discrediting. If there’s a buffoon in Spain, it’s you.” The minister also retweeted a message that reads: “In Madrid we have a president so that when things go wrong, she takes a book of photos with a vest and it’s Pedro Sánchez who has to manage the regional competencies because she is incapable.”