Speech by the President of the Government of Spain at the presentation of the 2026 Forest Fire Prevention Campaign

Torrejón de Ardoz Air Base, Madrid

SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN, PEDRO SÁNCHEZ

Good morning. Please allow me to say a few brief words to you. First, I would like to acknowledge the presence, of course, of the Third Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge; the minister

who is hosting us at Torrejón Air Base; the Minister for Defence, dear Margarita; the Secretary General for Civil Protection and Emergencies, dear Virginia; the Brigadier General in charge of Torrejón Air Base; the Colonel in charge of the 43rd Group; authorities; ladies and gentlemen.

Last summer, we were all acutely aware, once again, of the seriousness of the situation we face at this time of year. Last summer, Spain experienced one of the worst periods, the worst wildfires in its recent history. We are talking about 350,000 hectares burnt.

Today, almost a year later, we're here with a clear and unequivocal message, which I'd like to convey to the media present, and also to the public at large. And that is that we will do everything we can, as we always have, even more this year, because we've increased our capabilities. We will dedicate all the resources available to the General State Administration to minimise this emergency situation and ensure it never happens again on this scale.

I think there's something the citizens of our country have learned through experience: fire doesn't ask permission, it doesn't negotiate, it doesn't wait. Every year it strikes us, and unfortunately, it does so with greater force and ferocity. It arrives earlier, it's more aggressive, and it's also more difficult to fight.

And this is not a coincidence; it is the imprint of something that science has been warning us about for many years, many decades, and it is a climate emergency written on our land, where the Iberian Peninsula, and therefore Spain as well, are particularly affected.Denying that reality saves no mountain, protects no village, prevents no loss. That is why I believe that the only intelligent response, proportionate to the challenge ahead of us, is to listen to science, to anticipate and prepare for any extreme weather event.

And that's exactly what we've been doing these past few months: preparing.

Because behind me there's much more than just a set of human and material resources to face the challenge of wildfires during this season we're entering.There is a whole country ready to act. There are reinforcement brigades for forest fires. There is the Military Emergency Unit There are aircraft from the 43 Group. Specialised personnel are ready to intervene wherever fire breaks out.

In short, the largest deployment of the Spanish State for a fire-fighting campaign, the largest, is what we are presenting today. Because we're also aware that this threat, unfortunately, is escalating. The unusually high, extreme temperatures of the last few days, I believe, are living proof of this climate emergency, and that is why we have been strengthening our coordination efforts and raising public awareness of the emergency, while also improving our protocols and learning from experience.

Ultimately, what we've done, first and foremost, is address the material resources, which is always one of the main concerns for those of you working on the front lines against wildfires. We'll have a fleet of fifteen amphibious aircraft, the new Airbus A400 firefighting kit, and four new Chinook helicopters and two Cougars, which will be added to the resources already operational in the Emergency Helicopter Battalion.

Our teams, therefore, will have all these capabilities and some others that we discussed in this brief meeting I had with each

of the representatives from the operational units. These include high-capacity drones, all-terrain vehicles, thermal cameras, and advanced surveillance and tracking systems. This effort will continue in the immediate future with the incorporation-as we were discussing earlier with the Minister, the Secretary of Civil Protection, and the Vice-President-the incorporation

of seven new DHC-515 aircraft within our country's Defence Industrial Plan, which we are promoting to reach 2% of Gross Domestic Product

in investment in security and defence.

Therefore, first of all, what we have done, what we will continue to do, is to increase these material resources. Second, I think it is very important to continue to strengthen, to improve, to raise the quality of our coordination. This very morning, the State Committee for the Coordination and Management of Forest Fires, the CECOD, met here - I had the opportunity to speak to the Minister for Home Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska - in Torrejón, to take stock of last year's campaign and to analyse all the measures planned for the 2026 campaign.

In short, I believe that this battle - we are all very clear about this - will be won together, through unity and institutional loyalty, not through confrontation. That is why we have made progress in unifying basic operating criteria between administrations, from, for example, the identification of firefighting units to protocols for the use of aerial resources, emergency communication-so important-and operational symbology on the ground, and with improvements, incidentally, in prevention tools.

We were discussing this earlier with the Civil Guard unit present here: we have updated the forest fire danger index (which I think is very important) which, for the first time, will also incorporate information on the state of the vegetation and the soil into the meteorological data. Many of you have mentioned to me on numerous occasions the high soil temperatures reached during the hottest summer months.

Therefore, equipment, coordination and, finally, I believe, awareness-raising are crucial, because it's essential that we address this challenge through citizen coordination, as well as through awareness and education in emergency preparedness. As you know, (and I had the opportunity to visit, I believe it was in Cuenca) we are launching the Emergency Training Plan in schools. I say it in the present tense, but it is actually in the past tense because we have already set it in motion. With this plan, our ambition is to reach no less than 25,000 education centres and, therefore, 8 million students who will acquire not only solid training, a genuine culture of prevention and, why not, also get an opportunity to learn about future career opportunities, future professions, in everything that each of the units of the bodies involved in this entire civil protection mechanism represents.

I believe there are many lines of defence in the battle against fire. This is undoubtedly crucial: public awareness. But the most critical, the last line of defence we have, is the one defended by our public servants. That is why this year, as you know, we are going to fully implement the improvement of working conditions for those who fight fire on the front lines, our forest fire brigades, the BRIF. We will do so with a new agreement that strengthens their labour and wage rights.

In fact, we had the opportunity to discuss this issue months ago, and I will not tire of urging the other competent authorities to continue along this path of awareness, coordination, and increased material capabilities.

We are not here because the problem is new. We are here because we know better than ever what the problem is, what the challenge ahead of us is. Because science, by the way, allows us to measure it more precisely, and because we have learned-sometimes at too high a price in lives, which I also wish to honour with my words-what it means to be late or unprepared.

I'm going to end with this: I think many of us here remember that campaign from the late 1980s, 'Everyone Against the Fire.' It was a simple phrase. But I also believe it contained a profound truth that I would like to share with all of you.

Because when it comes to fire, there are no ideologies, no jurisdictional boundaries. Fire does not distinguish between administrations, it does not ask who governs, it does not understand political colours. And precisely for this reason, Spain needs a major agreement, a major national pact to address the climate emergency.

Look - if I may address you informally - I always remember what a forestry brigade worker told me last year, part of the brigade tackling one of the fires I had the opportunity to visit during the summer, after spending a whole day battling the flames in the province of León. This worker told me the following: Let's do forest management at forest scale. And when we talk about forest scale we are not talking about one year, nor are we talking about two years; we are talking about a strategic vision and a long-term view that entails a strategy and continuous and determined work over decades.

So our only enemy is fire, and to defeat it we need that unity, that planning and that capacity to respond. But, above all, we need resources and all administrations need to act accordingly. Let no one, therefore, forget it: Investing in prevention saves lives, saves natural spaces, and also saves those places, homes that are, beyond the material, emotional spaces where many families end up losing everything as a result of the ravages of fire. Cutting back on prevention is, therefore, the exact opposite. Sometimes all it takes is one careless step to cause a tragedy. You know better than I do. But a responsible decision is also enough to prevent it: a timely warning, a phone call, adequate prevention. A small gesture can save an entire forest, an entire mountain.

I believe that citizens, especially you, know what's at stake. And this country will defend its land, its towns, its people, with more resources, with more knowledge and with more determination than ever before

So, citizens, rest assured that we will be prepared. And this summer, as I said, echoing that campaign from the 1980s, everyone against the fire. Everyone against the fire.

That's all. Thank you very much. Good luck with this endevour.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)

Original speech in Spanish

Non official translation