Spain’s climate-sceptic right rejects Sanchez’s climate emergency pact as wildfires force mass evacuations

As devastating wildfires continue to sweep across Spain, forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes and scorching hundreds of thousands of hectares, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has renewed his attack on climate scepticism, accusing political opponents of undermining efforts to confront what he described as a worsening climate emergency.

Speaking at a press conference this week, Sánchez appealed once again for opposition parties to support Spain’s National Pact on the Climate Emergency, a strategy finalised in December 2025 after an extensive public consultation involving civil society organisations, environmental NGOs and scientists.

The pact outlines 15 priority measures aimed at improving Spain’s resilience to climate-related disasters. These include the creation of climate refuges for people displaced by extreme weather events, reforms to forest management to reduce combustible vegetation, and stronger prevention and emergency response systems.

Announcing that the areas devastated by the latest fires would be designated disaster zones, Sánchez argued that Spain could no longer afford political division over climate policy.

“The climate emergency is worsening year after year, and we are required to be united to fight against fire, as well as in prevention and reconstruction,” he said, adding:

“Therefore, I make an explicit request, a single appeal to all regional governments: Climate denial is the worst fuel for the fight against the climate emergency.”

European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) figures confirm more than 207,000 hectares have burned in Spain since the beginning of 2026. The country has already experienced one of its deadliest wildfire seasons in recent years, including a blaze in Andalusia in early July that claimed 13 lives.

The latest fires around Madrid have triggered one of the largest civilian evacuations in modern Spanish history. More than 56,500 people have been evacuated since the fires erupted last week, while a further 27,797 residents have been ordered to remain indoors. Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso described the fires as “the biggest natural catastrophe in the history of Spain.”

Sánchez has repeatedly called for cross-party backing for the climate pact after every major wildfire, but those appeals have consistently been rejected by the conservative People’s Party (PP).

Ester Muñoz, who represents PP’s parliamentary group in Congress, dismissed the prime minister’s calls, saying that the claim that “climate change kills” had become “a mantra the left keeps repeating to avoid taking responsibility” for what she characterised as the government’s poor management of the crisis.

Other PP figures have also argued that the recent fires were caused not by climate change but by negligence and human activity. The party’s position mirrors that of the far-right Vox party, with which the PP governs in several autonomous communities, including Castile and León, Extremadura and Aragón. Vox leader Santiago Abascal has repeatedly denounced what he calls “climate fanatics” for linking increasingly frequent heatwaves and more destructive wildfires.

The rejection of Sánchez’s appeal has provoked criticism from climate scientists, who say the evidence connecting climate change to worsening wildfire conditions is now undeniable.

“We have enough evidence to say, independently, that it is climate change that is causing these ever more devastating fires,” said biologist Maria José Sanz, director of the Basque Centre for Climate Change and a former member of the IPCC team that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

“It is urgent for society to understand that we must organise differently, with better prevention and improved administrative coordination, both in Spain and at the European level.”