MADRID: Spain’s environmental prosecutor has instructed officials to verify whether municipalities affected by recent wildfires complied with their legal obligation to adopt prevention plans.
The investigation follows mounting tensions between Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government and conservative-led regional authorities over fire management strategies.
Under Spain’s decentralised system, regional governments lead the response to disasters while the central state can intervene during escalating emergencies.
The northwestern regions of Galicia and Castile and Leon along with Extremadura in the west have suffered the most damage from fires raging since early August.
Regional governments must create prevention strategies though the national government has not yet issued a decree establishing common criteria for such plans.
Environmental prosecutor Antonio Vercher stated in his letter that the wildfire scale “evident”ly resulted from absent or poorly implemented prevention measures.
He urged local prosecutors to consider pressing criminal responsibility charges in the most serious cases.
Spain experienced similar controversy in October 2024 when deadly floods in Valencia sparked clashes between Sanchez’s government and conservative regional leaders.
Emergency services director Virginia Barcones said improved weather conditions should help firefighters make “significant progress” in containing the flames.
More than 403,000 hectares have burned in Spain this year according to the European Forest Fire Information System.
This surpasses the previous record of 306,000 hectares in 2022 which was the worst season since records began in 2006.
Scientists attribute longer more intense and more frequent heatwaves worldwide to climate change.
Lower humidity in air vegetation and soil makes wildfires easier to ignite and harder to control once they spread. – AFP
