The wildfires that have been raging for several days across west and northwest regions of Spain have sparked a fresh political clash between the country’s governing PSOE socialists and the right-wing main opposition, the People’s Party (PP).
The situation mirrors the confrontation following the catastrophic ‘DANA’ floods in Valencia, with PP-led regions accusing the central government of failing in its national response to such emergencies. ALSO READ: Tens of thousands rally against leader of flood-hit Valencia – the 5th major protest.
They argue Madrid has acted ‘late’ in response to the wildfires, shown ‘disloyalty’, and is ‘not up to the task’. The central government, however, has said that Spain’s Military Emergency Unit (UME) has been involved ‘from day one’ and that they have deployed all the ‘necessary’ resources. ALSO READ: Wildfires in Spain this year confirmed as most destructive in country’s history.
Under Spain’s decentralised system, regional governments lead the response to disasters, though the central state can intervene when emergencies escalate.
The northwestern regions of Galicia and Castilla y León, along with Extremadura in the west, have been hit hardest by the fires raging since early August in the scorching heat. ALSO READ: Pedro Sánchez promises financial aid for reconstruction of areas hit by wildfires.
Regional governments are required to draw up prevention strategies, but the newspaper El País reported the national government has yet to issue a decree establishing common criteria for such plans.
Tensions sharpened on Thursday when PP deputy secretary for regional coordination, Elías Bendodo (main image), went after the national head of Civil Protection, Virginia Barcones. ‘She’s just another arsonist. She’s dedicated herself to insulting the regional governments. It’s impossible to solve the problems like this,’ he said.
Barcones responded in a visibly shaken press appearance this week, condemning the attack. ‘I find it so strong, so irresponsible, and so unethical … How far does political criticism go?’ she said. ‘What good is it to try to discredit a person? I would ask that they stop insulting me.’ She also urged ‘those who contribute nothing to step aside’.
The clash stems from comments Barcones had made on Wednesday. She had criticised certain regional leaders for failing to ‘anticipate’ the wildfire crisis – something she said that the central interior ministry did manage to do – and for making ‘impossible’ demands once the situation was already dire.
‘Moving bulldozers isn’t done in ten minutes,’ she said, insisting she would not accept ‘anyone trying to rewrite the history of the management that has been carried out’.
The PP, which oversees environmental and forest policy in its autonomous regions, now faces scrutiny of its own wildfire prevention and suppression measures – similar to the criticism it faced after the DANA floods in Valencia.
The regional right-wing leaders have responded by repeating their line that the central government has shown a ‘passive’ stance, offered little cooperation, and acted with ‘institutional disloyalty’.
Bendodo said that Madrid’s attitude was essentially: ‘If they want help, let them ask for it.’ He also argued that ‘most fires have been arson’ and rejected Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s linking of the crisis to climate change. ‘Fires are not put out with ideology and tension,’ he said. ALSO READ: Pedro Sánchez visits wildfire-hit Galicia and pledges ‘national pact’ to address climate emergency.
The escalating dispute has spilled into the parliamentary arena. In the Senate, the PP has demanded appearances next week from four senior ministers: Sara Aagesen (Ecological Transition), Fernando Grande-Marlaska (Interior), Margarita Robles (Defense) and Luis Planas (Agriculture).
At the regional level, frictions are mounting too. In Castilla y León, opposition groups are pressing for the PP regional president Alfonso Fernández Mañueco to face questions in parliament, with the PSOE going as far as to call for his resignation.
Mañueco was criticised first for delaying his return from a Cádiz holiday, then for allegedly mismanaging both local firefighting resources and reinforcements sent by Madrid.
Critics have pointed to logistics bases set up in Bembibre and Cistierna to accommodate 180 emergency workers which, despite being prepared, were left unused. Mañueco countered on Wednesday that all available resources ‘are being used to the maximum’ at the discretion of the operation’s director.
In Galicia, the PP-led government of Alfonso Rueda has also been under fire after withdrawing firefighters from Lugo and A Coruña in the middle of the emergency. Officials defended the move on the grounds that the pulled units were urban specialists, saying they had previously been assigned to ‘protection functions for towns and homes’ but that the work now required was strictly forestry and should be handled by crews trained for that task.
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Virginia Barcones, Dir.ª Protección Civil: “Hoy he tenido la mala idea de abrir mis redes sociales y ver una autentica campaña personal para difamarme (…) Quien piense que atacándome personalmente me va a callar, que pierda toda esperanza” https://t.co/11OAam3I09 pic.twitter.com/rrA0lsoEu2
— RTVE Noticias (@rtvenoticias) August 21, 2025
La directora general de Protección Civil y Emergencias, Virginia Barcones, considera que es “poco responsable y poco ético” que el vicepresidente de coordinación autonómica del PP, Elías Bendodo, le haya señalado como “una pirómana más”. https://t.co/hQynzs4PdQ
— EFE Noticias (@EFEnoticias) August 21, 2025
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