Spain Wildfire Puts Conservative People’s Party Under Scrutiny

Spain’s largest wildfire on record has forced more than 100,000 people to flee in five days, putting the center-right People’s Party under scrutiny ahead of the 2027 election, Politico Europe reported.

The fires affected Madrid, Ávila, Toledo and Castellón, with temperatures set to approach almost 40 degrees Celsius later in the week, the report said. Spain’s central government has stepped in to oversee the crisis, but regional authorities have legal responsibility for front-line sectors including rescue services and forest management.

The PP controls 11 of Spain’s 17 regions and is topping national polls, with Politico attributing its advantage in part to corruption scandals affecting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s ruling Socialist Party. The party is facing criticism over investment in firefighters and over regional alliances with the far-right Vox party that have pushed it toward anti-ecological positions.

Madrid Regional President Isabel Díaz Ayuso said on Sunday that constituents had accused her of prioritizing investment in fighting bulls rather than firefighters. “In two or three municipalities, they were talking about bullfighters,” she said, adding: “What do bullfighters have to do with all this?” Manuela Bergerot, spokesperson for the left-wing Más Madrid party, said that after the fires are extinguished it would be time to examine “the precarious situation of firefighters, cuts in prevention and climate change denial.”

Jordi Vendrell, director of the Pau Costa Foundation, said Spain’s decentralized system puts key powers in regional hands. “The central government provides a common framework through the forestry act, but it’s the regions that decide how forests and other landscapes are managed and which firefighting strategies to pursue,” he said. Politico said PP governance pacts with Vox in Valencia, Aragón and Andalusia have required conservative regional leaders to reject the EU’s Green Deal and adopt rhetoric questioning how far human activity drives climate change.

The PP has tried to shift debate toward rural depopulation, abandoned agricultural land and funding from the central government. Ester Muñoz, the PP parliamentary spokesperson, told EsRadio: “Climate change is something that has occurred throughout the history of humanity and the Earth.” Socialist Party spokesperson Montse Mínguez rejected claims of insufficient resources, saying “instead of complaining, everyone needs to learn how to govern,” while PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said: “Everyone is doing everything they can ... from the central government to the smallest town hall.”