The political truce reached due to the wildfire crisis is beginning to crack as days go by, while the situation starts to be brought under control in some areas. The discussion around the State pact on the “climate emergency” repeatedly offered by President Pedro Sánchez, who rules out calling Alberto Núñez Feijóo to sit down and negotiate, continues to fuel the debate. The Popular Party refuses to confine the strategy to an agreement they label as “sectarian” and based on “armchair environmentalism” slogans. Instead, Génova increases pressure on La Moncloa with a parliamentary move: its group registered Feijóo’s own “comprehensive plan” against fire in Congress this Thursday. The PP wants it to be debated after the holidays.
The leadership of the Popular Party thus seeks to avoid taking a stance on the State pact promoted by Sánchez — who usually appears alongside the regional presidents affected these days, except with Isabel Díaz Ayuso — and to constantly focus on their own proposal as a response. “We hope the PSOE reconsiders its position. When the forest burns, the fire does not ask who each neighbor votes for,” said Miguel Tellado, secretary general of the PP, at a press conference at the party’s headquarters. All this two days after calling the government president’s course report “insulting triumphalism,” in which he assured that the pact against climate change is “the most necessary thing for the country.”
Tellado’s appearance also took place after a meeting of Feijóo — recently arrived from Lima, where he strengthened ties with Latin American right-wing parties — with Environment councilors from his party, who participated remotely, showing their territorial strength against the central government. “It is essential that the Government of Spain assumes its financial responsibility and does not pass all the cost of the emergency onto the communities,” Tellado said in this regard. “Fire is not defeated with slogans, sectarianism, and armchair environmentalism. It is fought with resources, with rigorous annual planning, with means, and by listening to experts and those who live in our rural areas and know them well,” he asserted, implying that Sánchez’s government does not act under those parameters.
Feijóo’s “comprehensive plan” is a compilation of 50 points that the PP leader presented last August, after another severe wildfire crisis, and which among other things includes a registry of arsonists and a national Civil Protection system. The Popular Party calls for “realistic forest management” and to leave behind the “sectarianism” focused on climate change. On Monday, they even launched denialist statements when their parliamentary spokesperson, Ester Muñoz, stated that “climate change is something that has happened throughout human history.” Regarding Sánchez’s appeal to the State pact, made again during his political report this Tuesday, Tellado has not moved an inch from his position and has again resorted to Feijóo’s plan. “The priority now is that collaboration between institutions and administrations continues, and everything else is entering a debate that citizens are not interested in,” added the PP secretary general this Wednesday.
Non-legislative motion in Congress
The initiative registered in Congress by the Popular Party is a non-legislative motion. That is, the text is debated and voted on so that parties express themselves explicitly in the chamber, but it is not binding. Last September, the PP already presented a similar initiative in the Senate — where the Popular Party has an absolute majority — through a “motion for the implementation of a comprehensive plan for aid, recovery, and fire prevention.” The document passed with votes in favor from the Popular Party and Vox, but the rest of the Government partners opposed it.
